It was a busy New Year’s Eve for the police in Antwerp. Around 60 people were detained during the course of the night, most of whom for throwing fireworks and/or carrying out acts of vandalism.
The was a big police presence in Antwerp from around noon on Sunday. They carried out checks to ensure that fireworks were not going to be set off illegally. Fireworks were confiscated at various locations. As midnight approached tension mounted in some parts of the city. The police were deployed in numbers to prevent the situation from getting out of hand.
In the Kiel area police deployed water cannon to disperse a crowd of troublemakers. Several arrests were made, and a police vehicle was severely vandalised.
A several locations in the city youths set up makeshift barricade. The police deployed a Bearcat vehicle to clear the barricades that consisted of scooters and bicycles.