BY INSIDER REPORTERS

ROME – As partyers celebrated the incoming of 2012, more than 500 people in Italy were injured, and two killed.

 In the capital city, a 31-year-old died when a hoard of fireworks exploded in his first floor apartment, also injuring several others including 4 children, one of them a 9 month old baby.

 The worst hurt, a four-year old girl was also admitted to Bambino Gesu Hospital with severe burns all over her body. Doctors said earlier today that her condition remains “serious.”

 The apartment, in the San Basilio area, was destroyed along with the entire residential building. Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno told Sky TG24 TV that the man was known to police for dealing in illegal fireworks.

 Police had seized 30 kg of illegal fireworks from the building earlier in the week as part of a nationwide crackdown on the dangerous explosives.

 The second victim, 39-year-old Marco D’Apice, was killed by a ricocheting bullet in Naples. The stray gunshot hit D’Apice in the mouth when people fired guns into the air during the midnight revelling in Casandrino.

 Despite a ban on firecrackers in Italy's main cities and thousands of towns across the country, hundreds of people were injured, including a 14-year-old boy in Palermo, Sicily, who lost the fingers on one hand and risks losing an eye.

 Interior Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri called on Italian people to reflect on the death toll of the New Year celebrations.

  “A serious reflection is needed and more rigour.”