Two Blenheim teenagers are lucky not to have been seriously injured in an explosion.
The boys, aged 15 and 17, both had shrapnel removed from their faces, bodies and eyes after an aluminium detonator blew up in front of them.
The parents of one of the boys said it defied logic that the two did not lose a hand or an eye in the blast.
They also wanted to know why young people were managing to find such dangerous items.
A Blenheim teenager was injured last year while playing with detonators. The 16-year-old seriously damaged his hand after trying to saw through a detonator he had found in a stormwater drain.
One of the boys in the latest incident is believed to have found half a dozen detonators on the bank of the Taylor River in Blenheim on Friday.
He kept four, which he planned to let off on Saturday night. However, the fun lasted less than two seconds.
When he and his companion lit a fireworks sparkler that they were using as a fuse, the detonator exploded.
Both boys were within centimetres of the device and shrapnel from the casing penetrated their skin.
Small pieces were dug out of one youth's face, while the other had shrapnel removed from his chest.
Both had pieces in their eyes and were transferred to specialists outside Marlborough.
They are now back in Blenheim, out of hospital and slightly abashed, according to one set of parents.
- NZPA
Blenheim boys injured in detonator blast
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