Berlin —New Year’s Eve celebrations in Germany were marred by a series of fireworks-related incidents that resulted in five fatalities and numerous injuries to emergency personnel.
Fireworks are still a major part of the nation’s New Year’s celebrations, with thousands of them being set off on city streets annually, despite calls for a national ban on their private use.
According to local public broadcaster MDR, two people in the eastern state of Saxony were among those killed, including a 45-year-old man who was killed after handling what was referred to as a “firework bomb.”
Authorities said the fireworks, which were set off during celebrations overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, targeted firefighters and other emergency services personnel.
According to a statement from the city’s fire department, firefighters in Berlin responded to 1,892 incidents on New Year’s Eve, which is 294 more than they did the year before. There were more than 1,500 emergency services officers on duty.
According to the statement, there have been at least 13 attacks on emergency personnel.
Florian Nath, a spokesman for the Berlin police, reported that 330 individuals were arrested in the capital on New Year’s Eve. According to Nath, one police officer is undergoing surgery in the hospital after suffering severe injuries after being “presumably hit by an illegal firework.”
“One of the low points of tonight was the attack on the police officers by a number of people who were gathered around the scene,” he continued.
Munich’s fire department reported that a massive balcony fire on the first floor of an apartment building was started by a misdirected firework. According to a department statement, the fire then extended to a second-floor apartment.
The statement went on to say that pyrotechnics on Munich caused “particularly serious” injuries this year. Three children—two, eleven, and fourteen years old—were gravely hurt in city incidents.
The 14-year-old boy used a New Year’s Eve firecracker to blow off portions of his hand, while the two-year-old and eleven-year-old boys sustained burns to their hands, necks, and faces. According to the department, all of them needed to be taken to hospitals for additional medical care.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser commended the emergency services’ efforts in a statement on X, saying that “an early and consistent crackdown and the deployment of strong police forces from the federal states and the federal police are the right means against perpetrators of violence and chaos.”
But the numerous arrests in Berlin alone, along with the recent attacks on police officers, also demonstrate that this crackdown was absolutely necessary, she added.
A statement denouncing violence against emergency services was released by the first responders’ union on Wednesday.
“It is intolerable that those who strive for the common good are constantly attacked. Deputy Chairwoman Christine Behle stated that violence against public servants should never be permitted as an occupational hazard.
According to the German pyrotechnics association BVPK, illegal and homemade fireworks are the main cause for concern. Board member Ingo Schubert stated, “These incredibly risky crafts have nothing to do with legal and tested New Year’s Eve fireworks from specialty retailers or discounters.”
“Anyone who conflates safe, little fireworks with the risky tinkering and unlawful handling of dangerous explosives is mistaking one thing for another.”
In a statement released on Wednesday, the German environmental group Deutsche Umwelthilfe reiterated its demands for a national ban on the private sale of pyrotechnics on New Year’s Eve, cautioning that the new year had once again turned into “a night of horror for countless people.”