Amsterdam New Year's: Cops assaulted, More gunshots, & Fireworks hurt five

New Year's Eve was particularly busy in Amsterdam, the municipality revealed on Tuesday. Police responded to more incidents than last year, gun use was on the rise, fire fighters were sent out on more calls, and five people were injured in fireworks accidents.

There were seven assaults on Amsterdam police officers at the turn of the new year, and one bus driver was assaulted. This is a slight increase on a year earlier, when there were five such cases.

"What is striking is seven, the number of incidents involving the use of firearms," the city reported. "There were also two incidents were the police fired shots themselves."

All told, police responded to 183 reports in Amsterdam, a rise of nearly nine percent. This led to 34 arrests, a decrease from last year's 45 detentions.

There were no reports of violence or criminality at the Kop van Java-eiland, the site of the city's official fireworks show. Nearly 10,000 people rang in the new year at the spot.

Paramedics did not face violence in Amsterdam, where ambulances were dispatched 348 times. Of that, five people were taken to area hospitals with fireworks-related injuries. Ambulance use was up over 7 percent compared to 2017/2018.

Fire department workers were not assaulted in Amsterdam overnight, allowing the first responders to focus on a high volume of blazes across the capital. Firefighters were needed 295 times in Amsterdam, a sharp increase of 79 percent.

The increase was largely due to container fires, which jumped from 67 reports last year to 158 this year. There were also 25 vehicle fires, similar to a year ago.