Guns are catching up with fireworks in Italy's love affair with blast-em-up New Year festivities, Italian police say.
No one was killed by fireworks again this year - compared to four in 2001. Burns and mutilations were about the same as every year.
But firearm casualties were much higher.
A stray bullet zipped through a window and into the heart of a 30-year-old Neapolitan man, killing him instantly. He was survived by his wife and one-year-old son.
Also in Naples, a boy of Tunisian origin was hit by a ricochet that lodged in his brain.
On Wednesday the boy, 10-year-old Karim, was still fighting for his life after two operations.
In Sicily a middle-aged woman was in a critical condition after a bullet went straight through her as she was watching a street party from her balcony.
A couple near Turin were luckier when gunfire smashed their living-room window but didn't hit them.
Five people were shot in Caserta near Naples, a woman in Puglia was grazed by a bullet, and a 14-year-old girl in Catania woke up with a gunshot pellet in her arm.
''There are too many firearms on the streets. In the south, with the Mafia, anyone can get their hands on a gun,'' said Naples prosecutor Franco Roberti.
''It's a lot easier to procure firearms in other parts too because of the relaxation of self-defence laws,'' added National Anti-Mafia Commission chief Francesco Forgione.
''There's a new security culture, which is following American logic''.
Karim's older brother told national TV: ''It was crazy out there. You'd expect things like that in Iraq. I felt like I was in Baghdad''.
