The country’s raucous New Year’s Eve celebrations were marred by tragic accidents and riots in several cities.
Five people have been killed across Germany in accidents involving fireworks as riots in Berlin led to over 400 arrests in a night of chaos celebrating the start of the new year.
One of those killed was a 24-year-old who died after his homemade firework was set off prematurely near the town of Geseke in North Rhine Westphalia.
A 45-year-old and 50-year-old also died whilst holding fireworks that exploded in their hands, according to authorities. A homemade firecracker led to to death of a 20-year-old in Hamburg.
In Berlin, 400 people were arrested after confrontations and attacks on police officers over the course of the night. City officials said 30 police officers and one firefighter were injured in the clashes.
Hundreds of police officers from the country had been deployed to the German capital to prevent further violence.
Fatal accidents and riots are not uncommon on New Year’s Eve in Germany, where setting off fireworks is permitted for a limited number of hours on New Year’s Eve stretching into New Year’s Day.
The day before, however, German police and firefighters’ unions called for a nationwide ban on private fireworks following dozens of attacks involving pyrotechnics on emergency forces in previous years.
Police in Bavaria described the scenes as some of the “most intense” in recent memory as revellers across the country rung in the new year with personal fireworks.
“It is unimaginable what our emergency forces had to experience on this New Year’s,” chairman of the police union for Berlin, Lars Wieg, said late on Sunday of the chaos in Berlin.
Police in Hamburg spoke of being “literally shot at” with the explosives, whilst in the city of Leipzig police officers reported being attacked by large groups of people with personal fireworks and bottles.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser condemned the riots and said perpetrators would be prosecuted “with the utmost severity”.
Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey, of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats party(SPD), promised to address a “partial firework ban” with the state government in a post on X.
