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BRUSSELS — Revelers set scores of cars alight and pelted emergency services with Molotov cocktails in Brussels late Tuesday as the city faced a wave of disorder on New Year’s Eve.
Police arrested 159 people in the Belgian capital between 6 p.m. Tuesday and 7 a.m. Wednesday, and responded to more than 1,700 incidents across the city, according to media reports. Much of the unrest took place in the western and southern districts of Brussels, including the communes of Molenbeek and Anderlecht.
At least 60 cars burned, with firefighters attempting to put out the blazes being pelted with rocks and Molotov cocktails, forcing them to retreat in some cases, according to the Brussels fire department. No one was injured.
“It was really crazy,” Brussels Fire Department Spokesperson Walter Derieuw told POLITICO. “We were there to help, and we were getting Molotov cocktails thrown at us.”
At the stroke of midnight, fireworks crackled in the night sky despite a ban on pyrotechnics in the city. Flares and firecrackers continued to be let off in the city center in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and a motorcyclist lobbed a firework at passersby in Ixelles on at least one occasion.
The disorder broke out despite a raft of measures by the authorities aimed at cracking down on New Year’s Eve crime. These included a controversial curfew on people younger than 16 in Anderlecht, the first-ever unification of Brussels’ six police zones under a central command, and deployment of hundreds of extra officers.
Meanwhile, Belgium’s second-largest city Antwerp also saw riots and fires, with the police recording 49 arrests.
Unrest on New Year’s Eve is an annual occurrence in Belgium, with more than 200 people arrested in the capital in 2023 and 160 in 2022.
“Unfortunately, it’s becoming a common thing,” Derieuw said.
The Brussels police department did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.
