Illustration of a gendarmerie car.
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E. Frisullo / 20 Minutes
A 25-year-old man died on New Years Eve in Bas-Rhin.
The victim, a resident of the village of Boofzheim, had "his head torn off" by a mortar fire for fireworks, the prefecture said Friday.
"A 25-year-old young man died following the handling of a mortar" and had "his head torn off," said the prefecture, after initially mentioning a cardiac arrest.
A 24-year-old man, who accompanied him, had him "his face damaged" and is hospitalized.
"They were in the street handling" the mortar when the accident occurred, we learned from the gendarmerie.
Three other people were injured in the hand in other municipalities in the Bas-Rhin.
Firecrackers and mortars resonated throughout the metropolitan area of Strasbourg
The prefecture of Bas-Rhin, like that of Haut-Rhin, had banned the sale and purchase of fireworks throughout the month of December.
Nevertheless, at midnight, firecrackers and mortars resounded throughout the greater Strasbourg area.
Residents were dragging them from their homes, the curfew forbidding going out for 8 p.m.
Cars were set on fire in various districts of Strasbourg, but in much smaller numbers than on last year's New Year's Eve, during which police and firefighters were violently attacked.
According to a police union source, about sixty cars were burned.
Several people were arrested by the police, but the prefecture did not wish to communicate their number.
Elsewhere in the department, the gendarmerie reported around 1 am "some fires in garbage cans and pallets, but this remains limited".
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