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Police officers on Pariser Platz in Berlin on New Year's Eve
Photo: Christophe Gateau / dpa
At the turn of the year, the Berlin fire brigade carried out more than 1,700 operations, almost 700 more than a year ago during the corona restrictions.
This emerges from a preliminary balance sheet from New Year's morning.
Accordingly, 22 people were injured by crackers and rockets.
In 38 cases, emergency services were attacked and 15 of them were injured, one of the injured rescuers had to go to the hospital.
"There is no justification for this behavior and I can only condemn it in the strongest possible terms," said state fire director Karsten Homrighausen.
As usual, the fire brigade had declared a "state of emergency on New Year's Eve" as a precaution in order to increase management services and personnel for the "busiest night of the year".
A total of 1471 forces with 395 vehicles were on duty, it was said.
They were reportedly called 1,717 times between 7 p.m. on New Year’s Eve and 6 a.m. on New Year’s morning.
For comparison: On New Year's Eve a year ago, when no fireworks were officially allowed to be sold, there were a total of 1026 missions in the same period.
"Surprised by the intensity of the attacks"
The fire brigade itself drew the conclusion that they were well prepared, but surprised "by the mass and intensity of the attacks on our emergency services".
Among other things, beer crates and fire extinguishers were thrown at vehicles, rescuers were shot at with pyrotechnics while extinguishing or emergency vehicles were looted.
All cases would be reported.
In response to the attacks, the Berlin Police Union (GdP) is calling for a far-reaching ban on firecrackers.
"We have seen across Germany that pyrotechnics are being used specifically as a weapon against people," criticized GdP country manager Stephan Weh on New Year's morning.
That must come to an end.
A sales ban is needed for everyone who does not handle pyrotechnics professionally and accordingly responsibly.
However, this is only realistic if it is not discussed again until December, he added.
There were also initial reports of attacks on rescue workers from Görlitz and Essen.
In the Ruhr area city, firefighters had to interrupt the extinguishing work on several burning garbage containers because pyrotechnics were fired at.
"The fires could only be successfully extinguished after police officers formed a chain around their colleagues from the fire brigade," says a police report.
Three firefighters were slightly injured.
tgk/dpa