2 die, 561 hurt in New Year celebrations as vandals smashed statue of Pope John Paul (PICS)

A manhunt has been launched after a statue of former pope John Paul II was damaged.

Vandals smashed off the head and hands of the statue in the resort town of Riccione on Italy's northern coast on New Year's Eve.

Police have now launched a manhunt for the culprits.

The incident was just one of many acts of violence that marred New Year celebrations throughout Italy.

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Two men were killed and 561 other people were wounded as Italians celebrated the New Year with massive displays of illegal and homemade fireworks, the Interior Ministry said on Sunday.

Of those wounded, 76 were children under the age of 12.

Marking New Year's Eve festivities with fireworks is a deadly Italian tradition. Up to 2,000 cities, towns and villages had banned them this year, but police said they still seized thousands of tonnes of fireworks, including more than a thousand rocket launchers.

The most serious incident took place in Rome when a 31-year-old man lit a large firecracker which exploded in his apartment before he could throw it out the window. The explosion set off a bigger blast of the remaining fireworks that killed him and wounded several others in the apartment, including three children, police said.

"I was in bed, and the bed jumped. It was like an earthquake," said one neighbor, according to Ansa news agency.

A 39-year-old man was killed by a stray bullet in Naples as someone fired a weapon randomly in celebration. The victim himself was setting off a barrage of fireworks in front of his restaurant.

(Reporting By Steve Scherer; Editing by Alessandra Rizzo)