In total, the police were called out to deal with 8,292 incidents and made 245 arrests during the New Year celebrations, according to the justice ministry’s official report on the evening.

The fire brigade was called out to deal with 4,106 fires, an increase of 400 on last year. Six of the fires were major.

However, despite the number of incidents, there has been a reduction over the past four years, the report said, while pointing out that all fireworks were banned during the two coronavirus years.  

This year 295 police officers and 49 emergency service workers were either physically or verbally attacked, a sharp rise when compared with the previous four years. “These were small-scale but serious incidents which had a major impact on emergency service workers nationwide,” the report said.

Most of the trouble was in the north and east of the country and although there was a 22% increase in the number of incidents in Amsterdam, the capital had far fewer call-outs than The Hague and Rotterdam.

Meanwhile the Dutch safety institute VeiligheidNL said 1,162 people had been treated for firework-related injuries, roughly in line with last year.

Of these, 367 people were taken to hospital with more serious injuries. Several dozen people lost a hand, finger or part of their foot.

Some 37% of injuries were down to illegal fireworks, 27% to fireworks bought legally in the Netherlands and the rest is unknown. Some 37% of those injured were under the age of 16.

In total, 19 towns and cities have been declared firework-free zones but the impact has been “limited”, VeiligheidNL director Martijntje Bakker said. “We have to ask ourselves as a society if it is acceptable that every New Year, more than one thousand people, including children, are injured and in some cases scarred for life.”

The right-wing government has already said it has no plans to introduce a nationwide fireworks ban