Germany’s brutal firecracker record

Burning cars and dumpsters. Shots were fired at ambulances and rescue workers. Fireworks attacks also against police officers and firefighters. The civil war-like scenes were not only in Berlin on New Year’s Eve. The full extent of the riots only became visible a few days after the turn of the year. Brutal incidents are reported all over Germany. The violent nature of the mostly young rioters, many of them with a migration background, was also visible in Hamburg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Saxony.

In the Hausbruch district of Hamburg, about 20 people attacked three buses on New Year’s Eve. They shoot firecrackers at the passengers and blind them with laser pointers. A perpetrator threatened the bus driver with a gun. slices burst. A bus driver suffers an eye injury. In two other parts of the city, fireworks are fired at the fire brigade, the emergency doctor and the ambulance personnel. A firefighter is in hospital with burns. Orgies of violence also in Hanover. There’s a knife fight in front of a nightclub. When the police intervene, the officers are attacked. There are several injured.

Garbage containers and hedges are already on fire in the afternoon

North Rhine-Westphalia also recorded an increase in violence compared to the previous year. A total of 556 physical injuries have been recorded, including 42 police officers. 6,000 police officers are on New Year’s Eve. There are 233 arrests. Bonn has been particularly affected. The number of attacks there has doubled, reports the National Office for Police Services NRW (LZPD). An example: the fire brigade goes to a burning dumpster and is pelted with fireworks and stones by about 40 masked people. But also in Duisburg there are fires in many places. The police had to intervene 470 times. In the Hochheide district, the emergency services are pelted with fireworks, stones and gas bottles.

While it remains relatively quiet in Frankfurt and Stuttgart, for example, the police and fire brigade in Leipzig and Munich had their hands full. In the Saxon trade fair city, rioters set off fireworks near people and cars and set fires. The balance sheet of the Bavarian state capital is also shocking: 34 physical injuries, more than 50 missions due to fireworks and 41 related to fires – despite the ban on alcohol and the prohibited sale of rockets, there are a total of 200 missions. According to a report by the Munich police, rubbish bins, hedges and newspaper racks started burning as early as noon on December 31.