A WAVE of bonfire casualties are predicted over the weekend.

Chris Moulton, head of accident and emergency at the Royal Bolton Hospital, says that so far they have seen four serious injuries, all involving local teenagers. And he fears more could follow.

Mr Moulton said: "Firework injuries have been dropping over the years. But I fear the dangers of fireworks are perhaps not highlighted enough any more because of the success of the previous campaigns.

"But we have seen four serious injuries in the past few weeks. These all involve teenagers being injured by the misuse of fireworks."

Mr Moulton says fireworks are no longer just a problem for November 5 -- people have been visiting A&E with firework injuries since the beginning of October.

He added: "This weekend could well see a number of casualties with Bonfire Night being on Monday.

"The firework season gets earlier and earlier each year.

"The injured teenagers had mainly head, face and hand injuries and have been dealt with at specialist burns unit.

"The problem this weekend will mainly be about people having parties around a bonfire. They will be drinking a little bit more than usual and this is when accidents happen."