Once again New Year’s Eve in Brussels was the scene of acts of arson, wanton vandalism and violence against emergency service personnel The fire service was called out to extinguish dozens of fires. The police detained more than 60 people across the city.
Brussels: More than 60 cars torched and firefighters pelted with bricks and fireworks
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Walter Derieuw of the Brussels Fire Service told VRT News that “It was a very turbulent New Year’s Eve”. However, Mr Derieuw doesn’t wish to compare it with other years. “Every burnt-out car and each case of aggression is one too many.’ The capital’s emergency services were called out 588 times during Tuesday night. Of these 158 calls were made to the fire service, while 430 calls were made to the ambulance.
Mr Derieuw says that around 30 call outs were to deal with burning vehicles. “These are between 60 and 70 vehicles that have been burned out”. In addition to this there were a further 60 call outs to deal with burning rubbish bins, benches, bushes and mattresses.
"Several firefighters had bricks thrown at them and there were people that fired horizontal fireworks and threw Molotov cocktails. Thankfully no one was injured."
The capital’s 6 local police services that on New Year's Eve worked under a unified command structure, reports that between 6pm and midnight on Tuesday 64 people were detained during 352 interventions.
