Serious injuries in Switzerland during New Year festivities

The year could have started under better auspices in Saas-Fee (VS). Fireworks burned a teenage girl while a young man fell seven meters. In the rest of Switzerland, several injuries have also been reported.

A pyrotechnic device exploded in the middle of a crowd shortly before midnight in Saas-Fee, Valais cantonal police said in a press release on Wednesday.

Four people were injured, one seriously. She is a 14-year-old foreign girl. The three other victims, more lightly injured, received outpatient treatment. The police have arrested an 18-year-old Swiss boy in order to clarify the circumstances that led to the explosion.

Still in Saas-Fee, around 1:30 a.m., a 20-year-old foreign national fell seven meters from a window. Seriously injured, he was transported to Sion hospital, adds the cantonal police, who rule out the intervention of a third party. The Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation for these two events.

The Valais police received approximately 600 calls during the night New Year’s Eve. Most concerned fights, nighttime disturbances, domestic violence, road accidents, fires, disappearances, property damage and accidents.

Arm exploded

The fireworks also caused several serious injuries in German-speaking Switzerland. A 36-year-old man accidentally blew off his left arm with objects that he had tinkered with in the canton of Saint-Gall. A 15-year-old boy living in the canton of Lucerne was also seriously injured while trying to light a commercial rocket. The German-speaking region also suffered several injuries after fires exploded in the wrong place and at the wrong time.

Car on fire

The firefighters were also mobilized. In Zufikon (AG), a Lamborghini caught fire in an underground garagecausing significant smoke releases which damaged no less than 75 cars. More than a hundred firefighters had to intervene for several hours. Another underground car park was also set on fire in Obfelden (ZH), damaging 30 vehicles.

There were many parties on December 31. Thousands of people watched the fireworks on the shores of Lake Geneva and Zurich, despite the fog. Other events were organized in the rest of French-speaking Switzerland. Circus and cruises on the lakes were notably on the menu of the festivities. On the Moosseedorf-Schönbühl side, dozens of people dove into the cold waters of the lake for New Year’s Eve. The Genevans did the same the next day at Bains des Pâquis.

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