2024-01-01 12:51:24
Police arrested around 390 people during riots in the German capital. There were renewed attacks on emergency services. Police and fire departments were attacked with rockets and firecrackers. Three young men died nationwide from fireworks injuries.
Large-scale operation on New Year’s Eve for the Berlin police officers, who were supported by officers from other federal states.
Christian Mang / Archyde.com
A total of around 390 people were temporarily arrested in Berlin on New Year’s Eve – many for violating the Explosives Act. 54 emergency services were injured, 30 of them by pyrotechnics, a police spokeswoman said. Eight of the injured police officers were unable to continue their duties. 720 investigations have been initiated.
Nevertheless, New Year’s Eve went better than the previous year, the Berlin police said. At the turn of the year a year ago, there were serious riots in the Berlin district of Neukölln: rescue workers were surrounded and massively shot at with fireworks.
This year too, police officers were attacked with fireworks. On Alexanderplatz in the center of the capital, 500 people initially threw pyrotechnics at each other, as the police announced on X (formerly Twitter). Officers dispersed them and checked for fireworks. As a result, emergency services from a group of around 200 people were fired at with pyrotechnics. Several people were arrested.
On New Year’s morning, the police union (GdP) repeated its call for a ban on pyrotechnics for private use. It was pure luck that emergency services were not even more seriously injured, explained Berlin’s GdP state chief Stephan Weh. He hopes that politics “will not just be exhausted once more in phrases” but that there will finally be sustainable measures.
In Neukölln, police caught several people making eleven Molotov cocktails out of gasoline and glass bottles. Nine suspects were arrested. A large group of people rioted in the southern Berlin district of Lichtenrade. “She is said to have shot at anything that moved,” the police wrote. In dozens of messages, the police described on X how young people threw firecrackers at passers-by, men fired blank pistols at children and buses were attacked.
They were filling glass bottles with gasoline and inserting scraps of fabric as fuses when our emergency services arrived #Neukölln were discovered. They also had grill lighters with them.
9 #Arrests & 11 seized Molotov cocktails#b3112— Berlin Police Operations (@PolizeiBerlin_E) December 31, 2023
Three dead following pyrotechnic explosion
Despite all the warnings, there were also serious injuries caused by fireworks this year. For three young men, New Year’s Eve even ended fatally: an 18-year-old died in Koblenz when he set off a firecracker, the police said. The young man died as a result of the explosion despite resuscitation. The investigation into the circumstances was ongoing.
An 18-year-old also died in Eschlkam, Bavaria, following suffering serious head injuries. According to previous information from the police, the young man threw a firecracker into a plastic pipe. The firecracker exploded the moment the man’s head was over the pipe. The criminal police are investigating the background to the incident.
In Saxony, a 22-year-old died when a so-called ball bomb detonated. According to the police in Görlitz, the young man had illegally purchased pyrotechnics in the Czech Republic. He suffered serious facial injuries in the explosion and died at the scene of the accident.
In Berlin, the accident hospital in Marzahn reported on Patients with “sometimes dramatic amputation injuries” had to be cared for in the rescue center. Nine people injured by firecrackers had to be taken to the hospital by helicopter.
#Christoph Berlin lands on the helicopter pad @ukbberlin and brings new firecracker injuries. pic.twitter.com/Zwa1Sp4Viu
— ukb (@ukbberlin) January 1, 2024
According to Berlin police, a 40-year-old lost a hand while firing a signal rocket in the Kaulsdorf district. Immediately following ignition, the rocket exploded in his hand.
Attacks on police and fire departments
Rioters also attacked emergency services in other German cities. A group of around 80 people deliberately attacked several police patrols in Freiburg with fireworks. An officer was slightly injured, the police said. The emergency services were called to the Freiburg district of Stühlinger with reference to street barricades. On site they found a car trailer lying across the street. Immediately following arriving, the patrols were attacked. The crowd was pushed back by the arrival of reinforcements.
Several firefighters and police forces in Solingen were attacked with stones and fireworks. The attacks occurred while extinguishing fires on garbage containers. The fire department initially withdrew and was only able to extinguish the fires under police protection.
More suspects in custody following Cologne terror alarm
Because of the suspected planned terrorist attack at Cologne Cathedral, the security forces there were particularly vigilant. The police chief said at a press conference on Sunday that the allegedly planned attack was intended to be carried out with a car. It turned out that the Tajik, who was taken into custody on Christmas Eve, was part of a larger network.
Around 1,000 police officers were deployed around the cathedral on New Year’s Eve. The police had received information regarding a planned Islamist attack on Cologne Cathedral on New Year’s Eve. Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki then celebrated the well-attended New Year’s Eve mass in the evening under heavy police protection.
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