Erfurt (dpa/th) - Thuringia's Interior Minister Georg Maier (SPD) is critical of a general ban on private fireworks, despite attacks on emergency services on New Year's Eve and serious firecracker accidents. "I think that would overshoot the mark," Maier told the German Press Agency on Monday. "A nationwide ban on firecrackers would not eliminate what has been an issue for some time - namely attacks on rescue workers." This is the real problem and New Year's Eve was "just the tip of the iceberg".
In Berlin, for example, on New Year's Eve there were sometimes violent attacks on emergency services. Maier condemned this. Here it is important to apply the existing laws and punish violent offenders severely, he said.
Thuringia's head of department, however, advocates a more consistent use of selective firecracker bans in places where many people come together on New Year's Eve. This mainly applies to larger cities. Locally limited bans can improve safety for the people who gather there as well as for emergency services. In several Thuringian cities, such limited bans were already in place at the turn of the year - usually for reasons of monument protection and fire protection.
In Thuringia, two people were seriously injured in firecracker accidents on New Year's Eve. One man lost a hand and another had both forearms amputated. In Leipzig, a 17-year-old died from his injuries caused by pyrotechnics. After these incidents and in view of the attacks on emergency services, a ban on private fireworks is being discussed nationwide.
