The Netherlands started 2025 with a New Year’s night full of fireworks, even in municipalities where a ban applied, such as Utrecht, Rotterdam, Tilburg and Amsterdam. Local measures were massively ignored in these cities. There was further unrest in several places and the Mobile Unit (ME) intervened. Early in the evening, a 14-year-old boy was killed in Rotterdam when heavy fireworks were set off.
The riot police took action in the Schiebroek district of Rotterdam after the police were pelted with stones and fireworks, according to the local broadcaster. The riot police also intervened in unrest in the Transvaal district of The Hague, in Hoogkerk (Groningen), Sint Annaparochie (Friesland) and Culemborg. In the latter place, tear gas was used after emergency workers were pelted with heavy fireworks.
Seventeen patients were admitted to the Rotterdam Eye Hospital until 7:30 am with eye injuries caused by fireworks, a spokesperson told the ANP news agency. Half of these victims are under the age of eighteen and half of the victims did not set off the fireworks themselves. “It is the same tragedy as last year,” ophthalmologist Tjeerd de Faber told ANP earlier in the night.
Major fires broke out in a number of places. In Bergen op Zoom, the roof of a Dirk van den Broek went up in flames, and in Alphen aan den Rijn, according to ANP, a fire in a construction shed spread to several cars. According to Omroep Brabant, a police car was set on fire in Veen in Brabant.
National ban
The fatal incident in Rotterdam took place on Tuesday evening around half past eight in the Delfshaven district. After something went wrong while setting off heavy fireworks, CPR could no longer save the victim. Mayor Carola Schouten said not long afterwards in a radio program With an Eye on Tomorrow that in her opinion there should be a national fireworks ban. “That’s the only thing that works. A ban per municipality does not do enough in practice.”
Due to expected strong gusts of wind, several municipalities canceled or brought forward fireworks shows. In Tilburg the show took place before midnight, Amsterdam canceled all fireworks shows and only allowed a light festival to take place on Museumplein. The National Fireworks in Rotterdam, at the Erasmus Bridge, went ahead, as did fireworks shows in Eindhoven and Arnhem, among others.
In at least one place, the fireworks ban appears to have been respected: in the neighborhood around the Hague Tarwekamp, where six people died in a serious explosion in December, it remained relatively quiet. A local ban on fireworks had been announced here, partly following a request from residents.
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