AS three East Lancashire MPs call for a special debate in Parliament to end the deadly destruction caused by highly-explosive commercial display fireworks -- citing the Lancashire Evening Telegraph's Opinion column as part of their case -- a frightening lack of control of these hugely-dangerous devices is revealed.

This comes after we expressed amazement that regulation of the fireworks trade was so manifestly slack that police, fire chiefs and trading standards officials really had no idea where the criminal hooligans letting them off were getting them from.

Now, it is disclosed by Pendle MP Gordon Prentice that, although records show literally tonnes of fireworks are imported annually, there is no system to identify which are the ordinary 'back garden' sort and which are the highly-explosive commercial blockbusters responsible for so much lawless mayhem.

Is this not incredible -- when, as we hear from a fireworks expert today, these powerful and deadly devices, which simply should never be sold to the public, are, in effect, mini bombs?

And yet the country's controls are so lax that no-one really knows how many are imported. Nor, in turn, who is selling them -- so that they get into the hands of the sort of criminally irresponsible people who have been blowing up cars and telephone boxes with them in East Lancashire and when a teenager has already been killed by one.

It is clear that the Government must act swiftly and firmly to tighten up the controls and put an end to the illegal 'back of a van' trade in these monster fireworks, so that hooligans simply cannot obtain them.

And, indeed, Parliament should also debate the entire fireworks trade in Britain . For, on top of these frightening commercial fireworks attacks, there is every year, for weeks before and after Bonfire Night, widespread abuse of the legitimate fireworks available -- testifying that too many go on sale too soon and easily get into the wrong hands.