A 17-year-old boy was killed when the firecrackers he was using exploded and two men were injured by explosives during the first unrestricted New Year’s celebration in two years.

Minor incidents occurred in different parts of the country.

This year saw the change of time almost unrestricted, for the first time since two years of measures to combat the coronavirus, and police today reported a “significant increase” in the number of night operations.

A 17-year-old teenager from Leipzig was wounded by the use of explosives and soon died of his injuries in the hospital.

The police exclude the possibility of criminal activity. In Thuringia, two people were seriously injured by fireworks on New Year’s Eve.

A 42-year-old man had to have both of his arms amputated after he sustained serious injuries while handling firecrackers he ordered online, and a 21-year-old man lost his arm in an accident with illegal explosives.

In Frankfurt, fireworks set off a fire on a balcony, which then spread to the interior of an apartment, causing serious problems for a woman due to smoke inhalation.

Two men were injured when fireworks exploded in the basement of an apartment building in Brandenburg.

In a similar incident in Rhineland-Palatinate, three 11-year-olds were burned, and a 39-year-old in Baden-Württemberg was severely injured in the face by a firecracker and had to be transported by helicopter.

In Berlin, police and firefighters were subjected to a “mass firecracker attack” while trying to put out a burning car, and in another case, young people threw fireworks and a fire extinguisher at a parked tour bus, causing the windshield to shatter completely.

According to the Metropolitan Police, 60-80 people tried to set fire to a van full of fireworks, and the fire department said on Twitter that one of its vehicles suffered “significant damage” from the fire caused by the fireworks.

In central Berlin, a policeman and a woman were hit by firecrackers when they were “attacked” during an operation in a store damaged by explosives. In another part of the city, “fools shoot” firecrackers at passers-by,” the police said on Twitter at night.

More than 1,700 businesses were registered nationwide, at least 1,000 more than last year. In Berlin alone, 15 emergency workers were injured in 38 attacks while on duty.

The head of the Police Union, Stefan Ve, again called for a ban on firecrackers. “We have seen them being used as weapons against people all over the country,” he said.

However, incidents also occurred during festive events. At the epicenter of the protests in Berlin, at the Brandenburg Gate, “many arrests” were made overnight, mostly with stun guns, and police called on the crowd to leave the area about an hour after midnight.