The pattern seems to repeat itself: attacks on police officers and ambulance personnel. Cars and electric scooters set on fire. But also deaths and injuries in accidents involving fireworks. New Year’s Eve ended with high death tolls and damage in various parts of Europe, particularly Germany, Holland and Belgium.
Germany
In Berlin, the police had to intervene several times due to vandalism and several officers were “massively attacked with firecrackers”. Rescue workers were also attacked during rescue operations. The capital’s fire brigade carried out more than 1,700 operations. Fire chief Karsten Homrighausen said he was “thrilled by the volume and intensity of the attacks on our staff” which left 15 firefighters injured. The rescuers’ reports speak of firearms pointed at the face, cases of beer and fire extinguishers thrown at vehicles, looting of emergency vehicles by hooded people.
In Berlin, as in the rest of Germany, there have been victims of fireworks accidents. The worst case in Leipzig, where a 17-year-old died as a result of his injuries. In Saxony, a pedestrian was hit and killed by a car while lighting fireworks. In Thuringia, a man lost both arms when detonating an “illegal ball bomb”. Accidents and deliberate attacks on law enforcement and rescue workers have revived the issue of banning fireworks, which has been called for by law enforcement officials.
Holland
In Holland, at least 12 cities have imposed fire bans, but the rules have been widely flouted, and here too firecrackers have been used to attack officers and nurses. Cars were set on fire in several towns, and in Veghel a monumental church was engulfed in a huge fire, probably due to firecrackers.
There was no shortage of victims of the pyrotechnic celebrations: a 23-year-old man died and a child was seriously injured in Drachten. But more than the incidents, it was the attacks on passers-by and police that hit police in several cities across the country. Dozens of arrests were made in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.
Belgium
Similar scenes in Belgium: in Brussels alone, over 160 people have been arrested for various crimes including throwing firecrackers and stones at police and ambulances. The most serious case in the Saint Gilles district, where a man died falling from the balcony: the nurses and paramedics who arrived on the scene tried to revive him but in vain and had to flee when some on the scene started throwing objects and firecrackers against to throw them.
During the night, the Brussels fire brigade intervened 20 times to set electric scooters on fire, 24 times to burn trees or vegetation, 57 times to burn waste or pallets and three times to remove burnt-out dumpsters. Three bicycles, 26 cars, six mopeds and a soccer field were also on fire.