Some 120,000 people have welcomed the new year on Avenida María Cristina in Barcelona, where a fireworks display and chimes of light and fireafter two years conditioned by the coronavirus pandemic, as reported by the City Council.
Thousands of people since late afternoon have already flocked to the Plaza de Espanya area to be able to participate in this festival, whose theme was twinning between towns and which was an original creation for the city of La French company Gruope F, under the direction of Christophe Berthonneau.
The show began an hour before midnight with a light and sound show typical of the Font Màgica.
The production by Gruope F was a celebration of “twinning between peoples” and a “call for harmony, understanding and weaving complicity from everything that unites us”.
Also, it was a call for peace “in a moment as symbolic and special as the beginning of a new year”.
More than 800 mossos and urban in the New Year device
The New Year’s Eve police device in Barcelona has had 554 agents from the Mossos and 255 from the Urban Police (5% more than in 2019), 809 in total.
The device focused on Avenida Maria Cristina and also in the areas of the city center (Plaza Catalunya and La Rambla), as well as the leisure areas in the center itself, the coast, Poblenou, Paral·lel, Gràcia and Sant Gervasi.
Incidents in Catalonia
The 112 emergency telephone number has received more than 4,500 calls to attend to 3,308 incidents on New Year’s Eve and until 8:00 a.m. this Sunday, as reported by the Department of the Interior through social networks.
The main bulk of the notices have been made from Barcelonès (2,146) and Vallès Occidental (418), but there have also been from Baix Llobregat (298), Maresme (209), Tarragonès (152), Vallès Oriental (145 ), Gironès (108), Baix Camp (102), Segrià (100) and Garraf (93).
By municipality, 1,493 calls have been made from Barcelona, followed by far by L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (213), Badalona (150) and Terrassa (140). 106 calls have been made from Sabadell, from Lleida 83, from Mataró 80, from Tarragona 77, from Reus 73 and from Santa Coloma de Gramenet 65, according to the data provided by 112.
arrests
The Mossos d’Esquadra 74 people have been arrested on New Year’s Eve in Cataloniathe majority for crimes against property, and there have not been any fatal accidents on the roadswhere there are no serious accidents either.
Of the 74 arrests, 39 are allegedly related to crimes against property, 5 for injuries, 12 for gender violence or violence in the home, and 18 for other acts.
In the road network, 51 breathalyzer controlswith 1,203 breathalyzer readings (84 have been positive), and during the controls 32 drug readings have also been made (17 positive).
The Mossos device has covered citizen security, public order and mobility on the Catalan road network with 2,768 agents in Cataloniamainly from 10:00 p.m. on Saturday until 10:00 a.m. this Sunday, in coordination with the local police.
Generalitat fire brigade
One of the main services of the Generalitat Fire Department on New Year’s Eve has been to work on the fire of two electrical panels in a hotel in Vendrell (Tarragona): there have been no injuries but some 200 people were preventively evicted, including guests and workers.
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