German police on Wednesday, 1 January, 2025 announced that no fewer than five people died across the country from accidents linked to powerful fireworks Germans traditionally set off to celebrate the new year.
Germans celebrate New Year’s Eve with a particularly intense usage of fireworks, which spurs a recurrent debate about outlawing the most powerful devices, given the high number of injuries each year, as well as the pollution and noise they cause.
Police Public Relations Officer, Florian Nath, said 30 law enforcement officers were injured, including one seriously wounded by an illegally manufactured fireworks.
According to the police, some 400 people were detained in the capital, Berlin, overnight, adding that contrary to previous years, there was no major violence or incidents.
Local police, who believe the victim made the device himself, disclosed that a 24-year-old man died after detonating a pyrotechnic rocket near Paderborn in the northwestern region of North Rhine-Westphalia.
The police further said that in Oschatz in Saxony, 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 F4 category firework, which requires a special permit to purchase.
In the same eastern region, a 50-year-old man died on the spot from head injuries in the town of Hartha when he tried to detonate a pyrotechnic pipe bomb, a police spokesperson said.
Near Hamburg, in the north, a 20-year-old man died lighting a pyrotechnic firework.
Local police finally revealed that in Kremen near Berlin, a fifth man died from inappropriate manipulation of pyrotechnics, while three other people in the region were seriously injured in similar circumstances.
