Wild New Year's fireworks in Berlin again prompt calls for crackdown

After another New Year's Eve marked by damage and injuries from fireworks explosions across Berlin, some local politicians are calling for other measures to crack down on illegal fireworks, reported dpa.

On New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, numerous people in Berlin were injured, some of them seriously, by illegal fireworks.

Unlike in many other countries, in Germany anyone can purchase fireworks and set them off on New Year's Eve, except in designated banned areas. Age restrictions apply to some pyrotechnics deemed more dangerous.

Even though this year's New Year celebrations were deemed largely peaceful, at least five people were killed in fireworks-related accidents across the country as the nation rung in 2025.

Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner on Thursday called for stricter regulations and a crackdown on illegal fireworks, but nonetheless spoke out against an outright ban.

"The vast majority of Berliners celebrated the New Year peacefully. Why should we deny them and their families a happy New Year's Eve with traditional fireworks?" Wegner told dpa.

But Wegner, a member of the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU), said that Germany's federal government should tighten laws around things like flare guns and try to staunch the flow of illegal fireworks into the country from Poland and the Czech Republic through "stricter border controls."

Scores were injured by fireworks in Berlin, with one hospital in the German capital - the Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin (UKB) - reporting on Thursday that 42 people remained in treatment there alone.

"More patients are still coming to us from other hospitals," UKB spokeswoman Angela Kijewski told dpa.

She said that several patients including children had been seriously injured in the hands, face and eyes by powerful illegal fireworks known as "ball bombs."

Others had suffered severe hearing damage, including permanent hearing loss, as a result of the explosions, she said.

So-called "ball bombs," which are generally banned in Germany because of their potent explosive power, have nonetheless become increasingly popular with revellers who often bring them across the nearby borders.

In the Berlin district of Schöneberg, for example, house facades and cars were severely damaged by the shockwaves from the detonations and many windows were broken.

A total of 36 apartments are uninhabitable for the time being, according to city officials.

In the town of Kremmen, about 25 kilometres north-west of Berlin, a 21-year-old man was killed by the explosive blast from "ball bomb" fireworks in a field.

A local police spokeswoman in Kremmen said the fireworks were powerful enough to require a special certificate to purchase, and that police seized the remnants of the explosives as part of an ongoing investigation into where the fireworks came from.

In Berlin, the UKB hospital warned about the dangers of the fireworks in a post on X: "The illegal home-made or imported so-called 'ball bombs' are a horror!"

Wegner, the mayor, credited Berlin's police and fire brigade for their handling of the chaos over New Year's and said that steps taken in recent years are making progress, including the declaration of "no-fire zones" where fireworks are banned.

Berlin police arrested about 400 people during the New Year's celebrations, roughly the same number as a year ago.

Some of the suspects allegedly attacked police officers or other people with pyrotechnics, while others had illegal weapons or fireworks with them.

Still others were arrested on suspicion of committing acts of violence or arson.

"One thing is certain: we will continue to take action against violent criminals in our city with the full force of the rule of law," Wegner said.