Germany calls for fireworks ban after attacks on rescue services

German police and firefighters’ unions have called for a ban on personal fireworks on New Year’s Eve, as the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, condemned incidents of rescue services being targeted with firecrackers and rockets.

Groups of inebriated individuals setting off their own firework displays are a familiar sight on German streets at Silvester (New Year’s Eve), with shops allowed to sell not only sparklers but also small rockets, fountains and firecrackers during the last three days of the year.

After their sale was banned for two years to avoid overburdening hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic, German cities this year again echoed with the bang, whizz and pop of consumer fireworks – causing an unusually high number of injuries and some fatalities.

In the capital, Berlin, authorities reported 33 injured police officers and firefighters on more than 1,700 missions carried out on the evening of 31 December.

“What we are currently seeing in Berlin, but also in Baden-Württemberg, is that firefighters are being ambushed, that police officers are being attacked like on 1 May or at other big demonstrations,” said Ralf Kusterer, the vice-president of the German Police Union. “This is a new level.”

The Police Union in Berlin called for a countrywide ban on the sale of customer fireworks. “We do not believe it is necessary for large parts of the population to light their own pyrotechnics on New Year’s Eve,” spokesperson Benjamin Jendro told the press agency dpa.

Germany’s union of firefighters called for more of its vehicles to be fitted with dashcams to record attacks such as those witnessed this year.

A spokesperson for Scholz on Monday condemned the “massive” assaults on rescue services, while Berlin’s senator for culture backed calls for a general ban. “What is this nonsense with firecrackers for,” said Klaus Lederer, of the Left party. “No one needs that.”

A 17-year-old teenager died on 1 January after an incident with a self-built catapult for firecrackers on the outskirts of the eastern German city of Leipzig. Another man from Saxony-Anhalt died after being hit by a car while setting off fireworks in the street.