The police in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague made dozens of arrests on New Year’s Eve. At least 35 people were arrested in Rotterdam alone, ANP news agency reports. Fireworks bans that were in force in several places in the Netherlands were ignored en masse. When fireworks were set off, people were injured again in the last hours of 2022 and the first hours of 2023, although it is not yet clear how many exactly. As far as is known, one person died: in Driessen (North Brabant) a 23-year-old man was killed in a carbide shooting accident.
Most of the arrests in the major cities concerned people who, according to the police, caused unrest or created dangerous situations. For example, officers in the Rotterdam district of Crooswijk arrested fourteen people who according to the police “with heavy fireworks” would have been involved. The ME had to come in handy shortly. The latter also happened in The Hague, among other things after rioters threw fireworks at police officers. In Amsterdam, too, the police were pelted with fireworks.
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How many fireworks victims have fallen during the first New Year in three years without a national lighting ban, has yet to become clear. Last year there were about four hundred, three times less than during the last turn of the year before the corona pandemic. It is clear that the Eye Hospital in Rotterdam was again a lot busier than last year. Twelve injured people were brought in just after half past two at night, ophthalmologist Tjeerd de Faber told ANP. Last year there were five during the entire turn of the year. “We are back to square one,” said De Faber.
Fireworks ban
This turn of the year, a fireworks ban was in effect in twelve municipalities, but it was hardly enforced. In Rotterdam, for example, fireworks could be seen everywhere after midnight despite the ban, a reporter tweeted of regional broadcaster RTV Rijnmond. Centrally organized fireworks shows, meanwhile, often did not take place. In Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Hilversum, among others, the shows were canceled due to the strong wind.
In all kinds of places in the Netherlands, the fire brigade had to come into action in the event of large and small fires that were probably caused by fireworks. In Veghel in Brabant, a monumental outbuilding of the Sint-Lambertus Church was destroyed by a fire. The tower on the building collapsed, according to Omroep Brabant, as are the roof and side walls. Firefighters are still trying to save the facade of the building, which was built in the nineteenth century by architect Pierre Cuypers.