SEVILLA'S Good Friday parade was not the only one that ended in disaster – a statue of the Virgin Mary caught fire in the Castilla-La Mancha village of Bolaños de Calatrava, causing widespread panic.
The Virgin's gown came into contact with one of the candles on the float she was being carried on, says Julián Baos of the Virgen de los Dolores brotherhood.
A huge conflagration threatened to ruin the parade, which had only just started, but the pall-bearers' swift action in containing the flames and stamping them out meant the blaze did not spread beyond the wooden cross the statue was supported by, and nobody was hurt.
Within minutes, the procession was back on the road with no further problems; rather 'with even more devotion from the pall-bearers and brotherhood', according to Baos.
Four years ago in the same Ciudad Real province town, a similar incident affected the statue of Jesus on the cross on Palm Sunday, causing considerable alarm among members of the public watching.
The photograph shows a statue of the Virgen de los Dolores ('Virgin of the Pains') being carried during a Good Friday parade.
