Mrs McCausland called for a ban on firework sales

Natasha McCausland, from Coalisland, County Tyrone, was just eight when she lit a discarded rocket five years ago.

Her mother Anne said people will never learn to be careful with fireworks so they should be banned.

Her call came as researchers at a Belfast hospital called for tighter controls over the Halloween period.

Firework ban

The Royal Victoria Hospital said results of a 12-year study reinforced the need for strict legislation on fireworks.

The study covered the six years before and after the lifting of the firework ban in Northern Ireland in 1996.

Natasha, who was treated at the Royal, has spent five years undergoing surgery on her hand, with no sign of an end to the painful process.

She told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster how the incident happened.

"I was walking down the back road with a firework, with my brother, and my friend had a lighter," she said.

"So we went down the back road and the firework was upside down, because the bottom of the fuse was sticking out the other end.

I just think we should have a complete ban because they aren't going to learn the lesson Anne McCausland

"I lit it and I was going to throw it over to the football pitch but then it just went off in my hand.

"I was running up the road to my dad and I lost my fingers, and one landed in my brother's pocket and the others were lying on the ground."

Natasha said she was scared every year when fireworks were being used.

She is also concerned about others injuring themselves.

"I get scared. I think someone is going to get far more damage than I got done," she said.

'Learn the lesson'

Her mother Anne said: "Every year Halloween comes and that brings back the memories. Still five years down the line and they are still about."

She said that people knew about the injuries to her daughter and to others, but they had not learned the lesson.

"Especially when you see children seven, eight, nine-year-olds throwing fireworks. They have not learned the lesson," she said.

"I just think we should have a complete ban because they aren't going to learn the lesson. I do blame these people who supply the illegal ones. Children do not understand the danger of fireworks."

Mrs McCausland said she does not go near fireworks parties and she warned adults as well as children of their dangers.

The fireworks ban was lifted in Northern Ireland in 1996 following the paramilitary ceasefires.