At least 300 people were also arrested in Berlin after clashes with the police or excesses.
Five people died accidentally on New Year's Eve in several regions of Germany when they set off powerful fireworks, and a police officer was seriously injured when he was targeted by one in Berlin, authorities said Wednesday. .
In the German capital, where the police had mobilized a large force in fear of excesses, some 330 people were arrested, the police said.
At least 13 police officers were injured overnight
In total, 13 law enforcement officers were injured, including one seriously, who required surgery. The latter was hit by an illegally manufactured firework, according to a spokesperson, Florian Nath.
Several police officers and rescuers were targeted by pyrotechnic devices during their interventions on New Year's Eve, he said, however, overall, and unlike certain years in Berlin, “there was no violence or major incidents“, he stressed.
Concerning accidental deaths, near Paderborn, in North Rhine-Westphalia, in the northwest of the country, a 24-year-old young man died by detonating a pyrotechnic rocket, according to local police, who believe that the victim had himself manufactured the machine.
Fatally injured in the head by a “pyrotechnic bomb”
In Oschatz in Saxony (East), a 45-year-old man died of serious head injuries when he set fire to a “pyrotechnic bomb”. According to the police, it was a powerful category F4 firework, the acquisition of which requires special authorization.
In the same region of Saxony, a 50-year-old man died in the town of Hartha while trying to detonate a pyrotechnic bomb in a pipe. The victim also suffered serious head injuries and died at the scene, according to a police spokesperson.
Near Hamburg, in the North, a 20-year-old young man died while lighting a pyrotechnic device.
Victims every year and a controversy
Finally, in Kremen in the Brandenburg region, which surrounds Berlin, a fifth man died during “the ignition of pyrotechnic devices” with a “inappropriate handling”, a local police spokesperson told AFP. In this region three other men were seriously injured in similar circumstances.
The Germans traditionally celebrate the New Year with a particularly intense use of fireworks, which regularly fuels a debate on the banning of the most powerful pyrotechnic devices, due to a high number of deaths and injuries each year, but also the pollution and noise pollution they cause.
Furthermore, New Year's Eve was marked in Berlin by a major pipe break, which deprived tens of thousands of residents of water for several hours in various districts of the capital, according to local authorities.
