Halloween night brings fireworks and attacks on police in Germany and Zurich

Halloween night on Saturday, 31 October, brought fireworks, thrown eggs, burning bins and attacks on police in several German and Swiss cities. Officers in Berlin, Halle and Zurich were pelted with objects, and Thuringian police believe sweets handed to children had been tampered with on purpose. Several forces also reported injuries, from slight ones in Bavaria to ten people hurt by pepper spray in Dresden.

Berlin and Brandenburg

In Berlin, the BVG briefly suspended bus services on several lines in the evening after buses in the Märkisches Viertel were repeatedly hit with pyrotechnics, a spokesperson for the police situation centre said. In Neukölln, unknown people threw a chipboard panel onto a moving police car, but nobody was hurt. Further incidents involved waste containers: people in the Huttenstraße pushed containers and E-scooters into the road and set them alight, a container burned in Charlottenburg, and pyrotechnics exploded in a container near Urbanstraße in Kreuzberg.

Berlin police had put about 1,500 additional officers on the streets, partly because of youth protests held on Saturday afternoon, which largely stayed calm. Shortly before midnight, police reported two burning containers and isolated pyrotechnic incidents in a post on X. In Prenzlauer Berg a police car was daubed with a coloured pen, and one suspect was arrested. Official figures for Berlin were still outstanding on Sunday morning.

Brandenburg police said only sporadic pyrotechnics had been set off in the state. In Potsdam, an attack with pepper spray hit two young people early in the evening near a private Halloween party, and police are checking whether it links to other youth violence in the weeks before Halloween. The Brandenburg police update was given on Sunday morning.

Halle, Thuringia and Dresden

In Halle, a group of about 100 people threw pyrotechnics, stones and glass bottles at police on Saturday evening, and nobody was hurt according to police. A police spokeswoman said the group was probably made up of teenagers and young adults aged 13 to 20. In Leinefelde-Worbis, children found metal needles in the sweets they had collected, and police said they assume the sweets were deliberately tampered with. In Dresden, ten people were injured by pepper spray at a Halloween party.

Southwest Germany and Bavaria

The Freiburg police headquarters described the night as very exhausting for its officers, because emergency calls kept coming in. Most operations were for smaller scuffles and noise complaints, and a spokesperson could not yet give a number of operations. In Ludwigsburg, a spokesperson said the colleagues had a lot to do that night. The Heilbronn police headquarters counted about 65 operations linked to eggs, lit fireworks and burning bins. In Bavaria, several people were slightly injured in isolated scuffles.

Switzerland: Zurich, Aargau and Thurgau

Patrols from the cantonal and municipal police in Zurich carried out more than 130 Halloween operations from Saturday evening into Sunday. The worst clash followed the ice hockey derby in Kloten, when ZSC fans attacked officers with fireworks, rockets and petards, and police responded with rubber bullets. One officer was slightly injured. Officers arrested two Swiss men, aged 19 and 21, in Zurich's Kreis 4 after finding them allegedly collecting projectiles on a building site, while they carried masks and weapons.

In Küsnacht and Meilen, unknown people threatened young people with petards, brass knuckles and pepper spray and forced them to hand over a wallet, a watch and jackets. Across the canton, police registered more than 50 reports of fireworks, around 60 interventions for nuisance and about a dozen cases of damage. The city police recorded about 65 Halloween operations, mostly for eggs thrown at vehicles, windows, facades and people.

In Aargau, the cantonal police went out more than 80 times, mostly for nuisance, damage and petards, and said many young people were out with fireworks this year. In Thurgau, around 15 reports had reached police by Sunday morning, and about half of them concerned eggs thrown at house facades or other damage.

Canton Zurich (over 130)130

Canton Aargau (more than 80)80

City of Zurich (about 65)65

Heilbronn (about 65)65

Canton Zurich (over 130)

130 operations

Canton Aargau (more than 80)

80 operations

City of Zurich (about 65)

65 operations

Heilbronn (about 65)

65 operations

Data from the article text

What remains open

Berlin's official tally, the Freiburg operations count and the Potsdam link check are all still pending. Police describe the Leinefelde-Worbis sweets as deliberately tampered with, but no suspect has been named in the reports. Police have yet to publish final Halloween totals for Berlin or Freiburg.