Dutch police arrested about 250 people during New Year’s Eve celebrations that senior officers said were marked by repeated disorder, attacks on emergency workers and extensive fire damage across the country.
Police said two people died in fireworks accidents: a 38-year-old man in Aalsmeer, near Amsterdam, and a boy from Nijmegen in the east of the Netherlands.
Acting police chief Willem Paulissen said “almost all available riot police” were deployed. In a separate police statement issued on January 1, officers described the impact of “heavy fireworks and arson” in some areas as “utterly devastating”, adding that targeted violence against emergency services and police “was intense again”.
The national emergency number 112 was briefly overloaded shortly after midnight, largely due to reports of fires. A national alert urged the public to call only in life-threatening situations, after which pressure on the system eased.
Several large fires were reported in the early hours of January 1. In Amsterdam, the neo-Gothic Vondelkerk near the Vondelpark was destroyed by a blaze that started shortly after midnight. Amsterdam police and the fire brigade said they were investigating and had not commented on the cause. The church was built in 1872.
Elsewhere, a sports hall in Bedum, in Groningen province, and a mattress shop in Hillegom were among the major incidents cited by police and local authorities.
In Amsterdam, police reported 52 arrests for a range of offences. The city said ambulances were dispatched 275 times and the fire service more than 300 times, in figures issued jointly by the municipality, police and the public prosecution service.
The Rotterdam-Rijnmond safety authority said it was a “madly busy night”, reporting a record number of emergency calls. Between midnight and 3am, operators handled an average of seven 112 calls per minute, with total call volumes reported to be more than 60 per cent higher than the previous year.
Nationally, firefighters were called out nearly 4,300 times, around 4 per cent more than the previous year and more than 16 per cent higher than the year before, according to figures cited in Dutch media coverage. Many call-outs involved container, scooter and car fires.
Regional services reported sharp increases in specific areas. The Midden- and West-Brabant fire service said it responded 440 times, compared with 138 call-outs a year earlier, with police and riot units intervening in several towns including Tilburg and Breda amid reports of violence directed at emergency workers.
Hospitals also reported a high inflow of patients with fireworks-related injuries. The burn centre at the Martini Hospital in Groningen treated 19 patients, about twice as many as the previous year, including 10 children under 15, according to Dutch reporting. Other major hospitals, including in The Hague and Eindhoven, reported increased numbers of injuries, though some centres said they were busy but not overwhelmed.
Justice minister Foort van Oosten said on social media that police, firefighters and other emergency service workers had faced deliberate aggression across the country, describing such attacks as unacceptable.
The New Year’s Eve disorder came during the final celebrations before a nationwide restriction on consumer fireworks sales is due to take effect. The Netherlands has traditionally welcomed the New Year with widespread private fireworks, a practice that authorities and emergency workers say results in large numbers of injuries and significant damage each year. New Year’s Eve 2025 was the last before a nationwide ban on sales to consumers comes into force, following years of campaigning by emergency room doctors, police, firefighters and politicians.
Police said riot units were deployed in several towns as the night progressed, while emergency services dealt with fire outbreaks, injuries and public-order incidents. Investigations are continuing into several major fires, including the blaze that destroyed the Vondelkerk in Amsterdam.
