Powerful New Year’s fireworks kill 5 people, injure police officer

Five people died across Germany and a police officer was seriously injured from accidents linked to the powerful fireworks Germans traditionally set off to celebrate the new year, police said Wednesday.

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.

Thirty law enforcement officers were injured, including one seriously wounded by an illegally manufactured firework, said police spokesman Florian Nath.

Some 400 people were detained in the capital Berlin overnight, police said, adding that contrary to previous years, “there was no major violence or incidents”.

A 24-year-old man died after detonating a pyrotechnic rocket near Paderborn in the northwestern region of North Rhine-Westphalia, according to local police, who believe the victim made the device himself.

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.

Finally, in Kremen near Berlin, a fifth man died from “inappropriate manipulation” of pyrotechnics, according to local police. Three other people in the region were seriously injured in similar circumstances.

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