Mass push in Germany to ban fireworks after New Year's chaos

Almost 1.5 million Germans backed a police union push on Monday to ban fireworks on New Year's Eve after the latest celebrations were again marred by deaths, injuries and arrests.

Critics have long sought to end Germany's raucous use of pyrotechnics to ring in the New Year, citing safety concerns but also air pollution and the traumatic effects on domestic pets.

This year, five people died across Germany in accidents linked to legal and illegal fireworks, including powerful home-made devices, with many more people sustaining injuries.

More than 100 police officers were reported injured nationwide, including about 30 in the capital Berlin, which is known for its especially intense use of rockets and firecrackers, sometimes aimed at law enforcement personnel.

"This massive violence against our colleagues must stop," the national police union GdP's Berlin chapter said in a petition handed over to the interior ministry on Monday.

The petition, which had gathered over 1.4 million signatures, called for a ban "so that we don't have to talk about dozens of injuries again next year".

It added that "for years, the debate about banning fireworks has arisen a few days before New Year's Eve and... for the rest of the year, hardly anyone talks about it.

"We can't let that happen this year."

About 400 people were detained in Berlin alone on New Year's Eve for offences related to fireworks.

In Berlin's Schoeneberg district, the explosion of a pyrotechnic device damaged about 40 apartments, panicking residents and leaving the flats temporarily uninhabitable.

A visiting Palestinian social media influencer was arrested at the airport on Saturday after a video circulating online allegedly showed him shooting a firework through a Berlin apartment window.