2024-01-01 17:14:00
There were people, even a lot of people, in the center of Brussels during the New Year festivities, a night which is traditionally hot. The transition from 2023 to 2024 was no exception, even if no extremely serious incidents were recorded.
As in previous years, a collective approach was decided. Liaison officers from the six police zones, the federal police, Siamu (Fire and Emergency Medical Aid Service), the Stib and the senior civil service were gathered at the regional crisis center to provide a coordinated response and rapid, which allows forces to be quickly dispatched to the most sensitive locations. It was the commander of the Brussels-Ixelles police zone, Michel Goovaerts, who directed the operations.
According to police counts, up to 100,000 people came to the city center. Around midnight, 55,000 people gathered to watch the fireworks. In addition, 30,000 people attended FCKNYE, a series of concerts organized at Brussels Expo, on the Heysel plateau.
In recent years, police and emergency services have been more regularly targeted by firecrackers and fireworks. It is in particular this risk which led the Region to issue an order prohibiting the possession, transport and use of firecrackers or other fireworks until January 3.
As all Brussels residents have heard, this ban was not really followed despite zero tolerance from the police. Between December 31 at 6:00 p.m. and January 1 at 6:00 a.m., the police intervened 1,276 times, which is much less than last year when there were 1,674.
A total of 206 arrests
But these interventions led to more arrests: 170 administrative arrests and 36 judicial arrests. Last year, there were 160 (139 administrative and 21 judicial). People arrested administratively are exposed to municipal administrative sanctions while the public prosecutor’s office will decide the fate of people arrested judicially.
For their part, Siamu intervened on 663 occasions: 251 firefighter interventions and 412 ambulance interventions, double that of a normal Sunday, assesses Walter Derieuw, spokesperson for the fire brigade.
There were numerous arsons: firefighters counted 32 cars set on fire as well as 14 electric bikes or scooters, 7 scooters or mopeds as well as 59 trash cans set on fire. Cars were notably set on fire at Place Lemmens in Anderlecht.
A man who was handling a firecracker or fireworks lost a hand in the explosion
Firefighters and emergency services targeted
These are particularly delicate interventions, because, more and more – and especially during New Year’s Eve – the fire and rescue services are the object of violence. This was the case once more this year: fire engines were targeted by thrown objects or fireworks, some of which were fired horizontally towards equipment or service personnel. No count has yet been carried out. Three firefighters, targeted by firecrackers, suffer from tinnitus.
The firefighters were regularly escorted by the police to secure their intervention. The federal police alone went out 47 times to accompany the Brussels firefighters.
A hand torn off
The ban on firecrackers has not discouraged all revelers. According to a Siamu count, there were six injured, including two minors: a teenager injured in the eye and a young child in the hand. Four adults were injured by firecrackers, including two in the face. One of these four adults was seriously injured. The explosion of a firecracker or fireworks tore off his hand.
The results, although relatively heavy, remain within the norm of the previous two years. But the emergency and police services were able to benefit, in the words of Mr. Derieuw, from an “ally”: the bad weather and the rain which fell following midnight discouraged more than one person.
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