Five killed and hundreds arrested in Germany after New Year's Eve chaos
Five people have been killed across Germany in accidents involving fireworks as riots in Berlin led to over 400 arrests in a night of chaos celebrating the start of the new year.
One of those killed was a 24-year-old who died after his homemade firework was set off prematurely near the town of Geseke in North Rhine Westphalia.
A 45-year-old and 50-year-old also died whilst holding fireworks that exploded in their hands, according to authorities. A homemade firecracker led to the death of a 20-year-old in Hamburg.
In Berlin, 400 people were arrested after confrontations and attacks on police officers over the course of the night. City officials said 30 police officers and one firefighter were injured in the clashes.
Videos posted on social media showed a huge clean-up effort the morning after, and residents in the district of Schoneberg complaining after a violent explosion caused by a firework broke their windows. Thirty-six houses in the area were deemed inhabitable, and two were taken to hospital after the incident, according to a spokesman for the Berlin fire department.
Hundreds of police officers from the country had been deployed to the German capital to prevent further violence.
Fatal accidents and riots are not uncommon on New Year's Eve in Germany, where setting off fireworks is permitted for a limited number of hours, stretching into New Year's Day.
The day before, however, German police and firefighters' unions called for a nationwide ban on private fireworks following dozens of attacks involving pyrotechnics on emergency forces in previous years.
The German pyrotechnics associations said that most deaths and injuries from fireworks can be traced back to illegal and DIY firework usage rather than pyrotechnics sold legally in shops in the run-up to the evening.
It is unclear if homemade fireworks were used against security personnel in cities across Germany. Police in Hamburg said that nine officers and one fireman were injured throughout the night, whilst in the city of Leipzig, police officers reported being attacked by large groups of people with personal fireworks and bottles.
Further incidents were reported in Kiel, where police said they were attacked by around 70 people, and Cologne, where firecrackers injured two police officers.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser condemned the riots and said perpetrators would be prosecuted "with the utmost severity".
