Some injuries but German New Year celebrations calmer than in past
Germany's celebration of the turn of the year was largely peaceful compared to similar occasions in the past, although there were isolated deaths, injuries and revellers in some places threw fireworks at police officers and firefighters.
Addiitonal police were on duty in many places with concerns about rowdiness in several cities, including Berlin. Police in the capital were swiftly deployed on several occasions to disperse crowds or handle burgeoning aggression.
They also detained suspects mostly for dangerous misuse of fireworks. In Germany, fireworks are only sold during the New Year's period but
Misuse of fireworks led to serious accidents, some of which ended fatally, such as in Bavaria, where an 18-year-old died from injuries caused by a firework.
A 22-year-old man was killed in Boxberg in eastern Saxony when a banned ball bomb was detonated, dying at the scene of the accident despite rescue attempts, a Görlitz police spokesman said on Monday.
An 18-year-old also died on New Year's Eve in Koblenz, Rhineland-Palatinate, when a firecracker was set off.
Earlier, police said a man had lost his hand in a fireworks accident on Saturday.
More than two dozen people were treated for serious firework injuries received during New Year's Eve celebrations, including some requiring amputations, Berlin's Unfallkrankenhaus (UKB), a hospital specializing in accident injuries, said on Monday.
Some 27 patients with serious eye injuries, burns and blast injuries to the hands and face have been treated, the hospital said on the online platform X.
The UKB spoke of "dramatic amputation injuries" in some cases.
Overall, despite incidents including rioting and attacks on police officers and members of the emergency services nationwide but particularly n Berlin, the police were pleased with operations during the night.
"We are satisfied with our deployment, we successfully protected the fire brigade," said a Berlin police spokesperson at around 3 am (0200 GMT) on New Year's morning.
A spokesman for the fire brigade described the night as a "normal New Year's Eve."
During the night, the Berlin police initially gave the figure of 15 injured police officers. There were 300 provisional arrests, many for offences against the Explosives Act, with the figures likely to rise.
A record of nearly 5,000 police officers were on duty in the capital to prevent riots as occurred last year.
Ahead of the night, the capital's governing mayor Kai Wegner said the police would take tough action in the case of riots.
The city also hosted a fireworks display, allowing tens of thousands of people to celebrate the New Year at the traditional party at the Brandenburg Gate, a first since the pandemic.
A sold out capacity crowd of 65,000 visitors attended the ZDF New Year's Eve party despite intermittent rain, the organizers said. The party took place along the festival mile between the Brandenburg Gate and the Victory Column and was dubbed "Celebrate at the Gate."
There were also fears of possible incidents in the state of North Rhine Westphalia but police said celebrations were largely without incident in several of the state's major cities.
High security measures were introduced after a warning of the possibility of a terror attack at Cologne Cathedral, but the situation there was also largely peaceful, police said.
