Attacks on rescue workers, many arrests in Berlin

It's a New Year's Eve like so many others: with celebrations, fireworks and chaos. Although there are no major riots in Berlin, there are once again attacks and numerous injuries to police officers. The night ended in tragedy for several young men. One of them detonated a banned ball bomb.

People all over Germany welcomed in the New Year with lots of fireworks. In Berlin, tens of thousands celebrated at the big New Year's Eve party at the Brandenburg Gate, where there was a fireworks display for the first time in several years. However, the celebrations were overshadowed by riots and three deaths.

In the Koblenz district of Rübenach, an 18-year-old was fatally injured when a firecracker was set off and died despite attempts at resuscitation. An 18-year-old also died in the Upper Palatinate in Bavaria. According to the police in Eschlkam in the district of Cham, the young man had thrown a firecracker into a plastic pipe in order to explode it. When the young man's head was above the pipe, the firecracker exploded and injured the man in the head area, the police said. Another person was slightly injured in the incident. The criminal investigation department is investigating the background to the incident.

In Boxberg in eastern Saxony, a 22-year-old man was killed when a banned ball bomb was detonated. The young man suffered such serious injuries in the explosion on New Year's Eve that he died at the scene of the accident despite rescue attempts, a spokesman for the Görlitz police department said. A companion of the same age suffered minor injuries. The girlfriend of the deceased was cared for by a crisis intervention team. The bullet bomb had been purchased abroad and was not licensed in Germany.

Emergency services fired upon in Berlin

Following last year's riots, the celebrations in the capital took place under tighter security measures. Although there were no major riots, the police again reported attacks on officers and rescue workers. Around 390 people were provisionally arrested. Police spokeswoman Anja Dierschke said at midday that 54 officers were injured, 30 of them by pyrotechnics. Eight of the injured police officers were unable to continue their duties. A total of 720 investigations into incidents throughout the city between 6 p.m. on New Year's Eve and 6 a.m. on New Year's Day were initiated at the turn of the year

At numerous locations throughout the city, emergency and rescue services were attacked with pyrotechnics, alarm guns and bottles. At the Neptune Fountain not far from Alexanderplatz, 500 people threw pyrotechnics at each other before midnight. When police officers intervened, they were reportedly shot at with fireworks by a group of 200 people. Several people were arrested. In Gropiusstadt in the Neukölln district, a parked police car was shot at with a bullet bomb and damaged so badly that it had to be taken out of action. Nine arrests were also made in Neukölln after people tried to make Molotov cocktails out of glass bottles, scraps of cloth and petrol.

Fire department in continuous operation

The Berlin fire department was also in constant action: according to their own information, the emergency services were called out more than 500 times in just a few hours, including to several fires in apartments and a garage complex in the Wilmersdorf district.

In Berlin, the police were deployed in large numbers. The fire department also increased the number of firefighters after the riots at the turn of the year last year. On New Year's Eve 2022/23, emergency and rescue services were massively attacked in Berlin and other cities. In some cases, the police had to be deployed to protect firefighters from attacks while extinguishing fires.

On Thursday, the Berlin police and fire department appealed to the public in a video published on the online platform X. "Don't attack us. Don't shoot us with firecrackers, rockets or alarm guns," it said.

Increased security measures in Cologne

In other German cities, the turn of the year was relatively calm compared to last year. In Stuttgart, the police gave an initial positive assessment of their operations around the Schlossplatz. By 4 a.m., officers had recorded around 30 reports, most of which involved violations of the Explosives Act. According to the police, there were no "serious incidents".

In Cologne, security measures around the cathedral were stepped up once again for New Year's Eve. According to the head of the Cologne police traffic directorate, Frank Wißbaum, around 1,000 police officers were deployed to secure the area and protect the public. The Cologne police had previously announced that they had taken three more terror suspects into custody in connection with possible plans to attack the cathedral.

The security forces in Cologne have been on heightened alert since Christmas due to a terror warning. Following the "danger warning", the Cologne police searched the cathedral with sniffer dogs on the day before Christmas Eve. No explosives were found. The Christmas masses took place in the following days under heightened security measures.