Fireworks horror at drive-in cinema

Sep 9 2005 By Neil Elkes, Evening Mail

SEVEN onlookers were showered with burning debris after a firework display in Birmingham went horribly wrong last night.

The crowd were watching the display at the T-Mobile drive-in cinema in Curzon Street near Millennium Point when a bank of fireworks exploded at 11pm.

The fireworks coincided with the end of Grease: The Musical, the film that was showing. Members of the audience had been invited forward for a dance.

Chris Shenoi of Central Fire Station said: "The fireworks went up and showered the crowd with pyrotechnics."

The fire crew tackled the blaze while paramedics treated seven members of the crowd.

Four of the victims had to be taken to hospital with burns. The injuries are not believed to be serious.

* ONE of Birmingham's best-known Cantonese restaurants was forced to close after a blaze wrecked its kitchen.

Three fire crews tackled the flames in a kitchen above the New Happy Gathering at Station Street.

The blaze broke out just before 5pm yesterday. Nobody was seriously injured.