Five people were killed and others were severely injured after firecrackers were set off during New Year’s Eve celebrations in Germany. Revellers in the country traditionally set off firecrackers to ring in the new year.
However, this year, dozens of firefighters and emergency workers were targeted during the celebrations with a particularly intense usage of fireworks, severe damage was also caused by fireworks containing spherical shells.
According to Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA), there were attacks on police officers, as people set rubbish on fire and built barricades. Some 50 people threw fireworks and bottles at the officers, in Leipzig. Similar attacks occurred in Berlin, police spokesperson Florian Nath said that an officer was severely injured after being “presumably hit by an illegal firework,” and had to undergo surgery in a hospital.
Video grabado por mi, esta tarde, en mi barrio en Berlín. Aquí los fuegos artificiales también están liberalizados, y así se ve por debajo.
Además de las explosiones, el sonido típico son las sirenas de bomberos
Anoche murieron 5 personas en toda Alemania producto de los fueg pic.twitter.com/wo9mtt2Yjj
— PP (@pedro____pablo) January 1, 2025
As per the DPA report, in Hamburg, a 20-year-old died when a homemade firecracker exploded, while a 21-year-old was fatally injured in the north of Brandenburg.
A 45-year-old man was killed after handling what was described as a “firework bomb” in Saxony, as per a CNN report.
Meanwhile, in Berlin, firefighters responded to 1,892 incidents on New Year’s Eve, CNN reported firefighters as saying. Over 1,500 emergency services personnel were on duty. At least 13 attacks on emergency workers were reported, the statement said.
As per DPA, later another 3,000 additional police officers were deployed in addition to police officers already in the streets.
Nath was quoted by CNN, “Several people standing around the scene attacked the police officers and it is one of the low points of tonight”.
At least 390 people were arrested in Berlin alone, for a series of offences, and 15 officers and a member of the fire brigade were injured, interior senator Iris Spranger told dpa. The offences mainly involved dangerous bodily harm, breach of the peace, and violations of the Explosives Act, as per the report.
Fireworks are banned in certain streets, and fireworks in Berlin are only permitted on New Year’s Eve from 6 pm local time until New Year’s morning at 7 am. Violations risk a fine of up to €10,000.
In Bonn, teenagers at the train station aimed a rocket at a homeless man who was asleep while the suspects reportedly filmed the attack with a mobile phone. The homeless man was in shock due to the attacks.
According to CNN, in Munich, children aged – 2, 11 and 14 – were injured during the incidents in the city. The two-year-old boy and the eleven-year-old boy suffered burns to their hands, neck and face while the 14-year-old blew off parts of his hands with a firecracker, all were taken to the hospital for medical treatment.
According to the report, BVPK, a German pyrotechnics association, said that the major concern is with illegal and homemade fireworks. A board member, Ingo Schubert, said that “extremely dangerous crafts have nothing to do with legal and tested New Year’s Eve fireworks.”
Shubert added that associating dangerous tinkering and the illegal handling of dangerous explosives with safe and small fireworks is confusing apples to oranges.
