One person died and several others were seriously injured as the Netherlands welcomed the New Year.

Police were called out to deal with incidents in a number of places and emergency service workers were pelted with fireworks in Rotterdam, Amersfoort and Tilburg, among others.

Nevertheless, police said it had been a ‘fairly peaceful’ evening with the number of arrests on a par with previous years.

Arrests

In Amsterdam, where the city council staged a massive public firework display along the IJ waterfront, 157 people were arrested. Police said this is in line with 2014.

There were two major fires in the capital. One was in an attic close to the Oude Kerk, the second in a textile trader’s storage area. At least eight people were treated for smoke inhalation in the second fire and 20 homes evacuated.

In the north of the country, police arrested 48 people for fighting, vandalism and letting off illegal fireworks. In Leeuwarden, explosives experts were called in to deal with a crate of extremely powerful, illegal fireworks, the Telegraaf said.

There were several arrests in Utrecht for public order offences and at least 37 cars were set on fire. Two 17-year-old boys were also seriously injured in the city when they fell off a balcony, broadcaster Nos said.

Warning shot

In Oss, police had to bring in reinforcements after two police officers were attacked by a group of around 12 men. Three men in their 30s and 40s were arrested.

In Papendrecht, a police officer was injured when a piece of furniture was thrown out of a window. At least one warning shot was fired, news agency ANP said.

One man was killed in Haarlem and several people injured in what police said was a violent incident, possibly a stabbing.

Police had earlier reported one person had been killed in Veenendaal during a fire in a small block of flats, but later withdrew the report. Seven other households had to be evacuated because of the damage to properties.

Injuries

In Assen, one person was seriously injured in a carbide explosion – the local tradition is of mixing carbide and water in a milk churn and blasting off the lid.

In Zaandam, a 20-year-old man was seriously injured  when he set off a home-made firework bomb in the railway station’s waiting area. Several windows were blown out in the blast, police said.

In Ridderkerk, five houses were damaged by a firework blast and several people injured, the Telegraaf said.

At least 12 people were admitted to the specialist eye hospital in Rotterdam with firework injuries, including three children under the age of 12, news agency ANP said.

Public displays

Eye specialist Tjeerd de Faber said the injuries appeared to be more serious than in previous years, and renewed calls for the sale of fireworks to the public to be stopped.

Dozens of local authorities had introduced firework free zones ahead of the New Year celebrations. The biggest public firework show was in Rotterdam, where 50,000 people came to watch the display on the Erasmus bridge.

In total, police seized 45,268 kilos of illegal fireworks in the run up to the celebrations, news agency ANP said.