Berlin - New Year's Eve balance sheet: explosions, Molotov cocktails, arrests
According to police figures that are not yet final, around 390 people were provisionally arrested in Berlin on New Year's Eve - many for arson, violations of the Explosives Act and resisting the police. A total of 720 criminal investigations into incidents throughout the city were initiated around the turn of the year, the police announced on Monday. A year ago, 145 arrests were made for various offenses on New Year's Eve. The police were partly taken by surprise by violent riots.
54 police officers were injured, 30 of them by pyrotechnics. Eight injured police officers were unable to continue their duties and one is being treated in hospital. The police accompanied the fire department so intensively that - unlike the previous year - no firefighters were injured. Between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., the police received 3270 emergency calls, followed by 2214 deployments.
The police were satisfied with the response, said a spokeswoman. The concept with firecracker ban zones and pre-defined hotspot areas had worked. Through "consistent and low-threshold intervention", it was possible to avoid hotspots.
The significantly increased police presence in the city had also led to more arrests. According to the spokesperson, more than 3,200 police officers were deployed on New Year's Eve in addition to the 1,000 or so police officers in patrol cars and guards.
Several attacks on the police and other crimes were reported by the police. At around 8 p.m., a police car was damaged by a detonation in Gropiusstadt, causing the windshield to shatter. During the night, there was talk of a so-called bullet bomb that exploded while the police officers were on their way to a house there.
According to the police, a man in Moabit threw a container with a flammable liquid, a kind of Molotov cocktail, onto the street in front of a bus. When the bus swerved, the perpetrator threw a second incendiary device, which destroyed the middle entrance door.
At around 11 p.m., police arrested nine people in Gropiusstadt for making eleven Molotov cocktails. At 0.30 a.m. the police in Charlottenburg were attacked with firecrackers, a policewoman was injured in the head and a police car was damaged.
At around 1 a.m., firefighters were extinguishing a fire on a balcony in Kreuzberg when they heard several explosions. When they returned to their vehicle, they noticed heavy damage.
At 1.30 a.m., a police car in Charlottenburg was shot at with fireworks by a group of people. During arrests, there was resistance, attempted prisoner liberation and an attack on police officers. Around the same time, the windshield of a parked patrol car was smashed in Charlottenburg.
In Rigaer Straße in Friedrichshain, where there used to be houses occupied by left-wing radicals, the police found burning obstacles in the street and masked people nearby; firecrackers flew at the police from the roofs. When the police helicopter appeared in the air, the attackers fled.
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- The violent incidents on New Year's Eve in Charlottenburg included an attack on police officers with firecrackers and damage to a police car, resulting in a policewoman's injury.
- Despite the increased police presence and the implementation of firecracker ban zones, incidents of pyrotechnics misuse were reported throughout Berlin during the turn of the year, including an explosion that damaged a police car in Gropiusstadt.
- The fire department was called to extinguish a fire on a balcony in Kreuzberg at around 1 a.m., only to return and find their vehicle heavily damaged from several explosions.
- In addition to arrests for arson and violations of the Explosives Act, police in Berlin encountered instances of criminality during New Year's Eve, including the use of Molotov cocktails, as witnessed in Moabit and Gropiusstadt.
Source: www.stern.de
