Overview
- Rotterdam saw multiple vehicles destroyed overnight, including an Audi whose hood blew apart in an explosion that firefighters suspect involved heavy or modified fireworks; police secured evidence and reported no injuries.
- Explosive ordnance specialists detonated illegal, hand‑modified fireworks seized from a Zwijndrecht garage after a tip, while police called in the EOD to examine suspected homemade devices found in a Heeze residence.
- Police reported additional heavy‑fireworks seizures in Bergen op Zoom and warned that items lacking a CE mark or Dutch instructions may be illegal to possess or transport in the Netherlands.
- Border checks intensified at the Wyler crossing near Nijmegen as Dutch buyers queued in Germany; officers confiscated multiple loads to enforce limits and bans on certain F2 items such as firecrackers and loose rockets.
- After hours of unrest in Amsterdam’s Floradorp in which fireworks were thrown at officers and fires were set, police made no arrests but deployed to shield fire crews, and the city designated security risk zones with preventive searches for New Year’s Eve.