Unusually messy New Year’s night despite corona pandemic

A total of 900 cases in southern Sweden

Of: Anna Sjögren, Sophie Tanha

Published: January 1st, 2021 at 06.59
Updated: January 1, 2021 at 08.10

The last night of the year was unusually messy.

In various places, rockets were fired at blue light personnel and at Götaplatsen in Gothenburg, thousands of people gathered to celebrate the Twelfth Battle.

– It has been very difficult around the rockets, says Torbjörn Roos, duty officer in the Bergslagen region.

Already early on New Years Eve, there were hints that it might be a messy New Year. And early in the morning of New Years, various police regions of the country reported that they had an unusually stressful New Years Eve.

They fired rockets at the police

In the Stockholm and Gotland region, the police received more than twice as many calls related to fireworks and rockets in five hours, compared to the previous year – a total of 194 cases compared to 74 in 2019.

Between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m., 585 incident reports were recorded.

– A third of all calls have been violations of the law, explosions and rockets. People are very upset with the crowd, how and where you shoot and that is not taken into account, says Eva Nilsson, a press spokesperson for the Stockholm police.

• In the center of Sollentuna, several youth gangs fired rockets at the police at 9:00 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. They ran out of the place and have not been able to be arrested. However, no one was injured in the incident.

• In Liljeholmen, south of Stockholm, residents raised the alarm that young people had set off fireworks from a balcony into a courtyard. When residents told them to stop, they threw glass bottles at them. The police had firecrackers thrown at his car when they arrived at the scene.

• At 01:00, a person was found dumped in the water in central Stockholm and taken to the hospital by ambulance helicopter. The damage situation is unclear.

“Extremely messy” at Scania

Even in the southern police regions, Skåne, Blekinge, Kronoberg and Kalmar, the police witness an extremely disorderly night with a very high workload.

From 6 pm to 5.30 am, a total of 900 cases were received, which is almost double compared to a normal night.

100 cases are related to riots and assaults and alarms have been received about 57 fires and 20 related to drunkenness. A total of 302 boxes of fireworks have been received.

– There have been many, many people who have fired rockets, many young people. In general, some conversations have focused on it being very loud, but it is also about shooting at cars, property and people, says Magnus Lefévre, an officer on duty in the South police region.

• Shortly after noon, the alarm sounded that some 20 people were involved in a large fight in Klippan. A man in his 20s received stab wounds or cuts and was taken by ambulance to hospital. The incident is classified as an attempted murder.

• At 01:00, a group of people in Ystad is said to have smashed an apartment window and set off fireworks. The play lit a bed in the apartment, but no one was injured.

• At twelve o’clock, the police received an alarm that a man was shooting with a shotgun in Linderöd, Kristianstad. The shots were fired near a church that was hit and damaged. The incident is classified as causing danger to others, when there were people in the immediate vicinity.

Thousands of people gathered in Gothenburg

Even in Västra Götaland, the police have been on high alert with alarms about rocket fire, especially between midnight and one. A total of 160 cases of careless rocket fire have been received, several of them against the police.

There have also been problems with several large crowds. At Masthuggskyrkan, 500 people gathered to watch the fireworks and several thousand at Götaplatsen.

– We did not think there would be so many people out, except that they are crown times so it rained a lot. All restaurants and taverns are closed now, so he’s certainly contributed, says Duty Officer Morten Gunneng in the West Police Region.

Ten reports of robberies and ten knife cuts have been reported in the region, which is unusually many according to Gunneng. The police have also intervened against some black clubs in the region.

• At 10:30 p.m., a man in Mölndal was stabbed in the back without provocation by unknown persons. The man was taken by ambulance to hospital and the incident is classified as an aggravated assault. Injuries must not be life threatening. There are currently no alleged perpetrators.

• At one thirty, a man in his 20s fires rockets at the police in Lidköping, apparently without provocation.

• Shortly after one-thirty, a group of young people throw stones at the police in Vårgårda.

The ambulance was fired with rockets

Even in the Bergslagen police region, New Year’s Eve is described as very loud with exceptionally many reports of rocket launches, several of them targeting blue light personnel.

– There has been a lot of chaos around the rockets and we have at least two cases that will be classified as blue light sabotage, says Torbjörn Roos, officer of the watch.

• In Avesta, police patrols were bombarded with rockets. A police officer was injured when a rocket exploded in a police vehicle.

• In Örebro, an ambulance was hit by rockets during an emergency in the Väster district and there have also been car fires and fires in rubbish bins and garbage rooms. Police patrols have also been fired with rockets in Mora and Karlskoga.

Police Region East shares the picture of an unusually messy New Year’s Eve, says Erik Creutz, a duty officer in the region.

– We have had quite high pressure, many who call for rockets and riots. We have had to help the rescue service several times when they went out in small fires in places where it was messy and a lot of people in the place. Several people have been rejected.

Grave assault on Sundsvall

In the north of the country, in the northern police region, however, the New Year’s celebration was a bit quieter, RLC officer Henrik Fahlén tells SVT News.

– We have had some cases of assault and some cases of driving while intoxicated. But overall, it has been relatively quiet for a New Years night.

• In Sundsvall, the police received an alarm about a serious robbery at 01 o’clock. Later, a man was taken to hospital after being beaten with a machete, according to the Sundsvall newspaper. Later that night, a man was arrested on suspicion of assault.

• In Örnsköldsvik, a man is beaten with a shelter in an apartment at one thirty. Police classify the incident as aggravated assault and a man in his 20s is arrested on suspicion of the crime.

Earlier in the evening, a 77-year-old German woman was killed in connection with a snowmobile accident in Torsby.

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Published: January 1st, 2021 at 06.59