Minor injuries, house fires cause brunt of New Year’s Eve incidents in Hungary

Police were mainly called to incidents connected to fireworks and intoxication on New Year’s Eve, the police said in a statement on Monday. 

The police have started 15 procedures against 12 people on misdemeanour charges. The cases included a petard lightly injuring an 8 year old child on her face and fire damages to family homes, the statement said.

Police spokesperson Judit Pap told public television on Monday morning that of the 28 road accidents on New Year’s Eve, one was fatal, when a Budapest tram hit a pedestrian. The man died immediately, she said. The police also apprehended 15 drunk drivers, she said.

The national disaster management authority’s spokesman told MTI that of the 157 emergency calls answered throughout the country on the last night of the year, 14 were about minor fires caused by fireworks. Cases involved a house fire in Fegyvernek, eastern Hungary, where a body was found in the burnt-out building, and other home fires without casualties.

The ambulance service reported over 3,000 emergency calls,

1,000 of which were called in from Budapest, the communications chief of the service said.

Most alerts came between midnight and 4am on Monday morning, Pál Győrfi said in a statement. Of the calls, 115 incidents were in connection with fireworks causing hand, face and eye injuries.

Traffic accidents, scuffles, carbon monoxide poisonings and sicknesses made up the brunt of the calls. Of the nearly 300 intoxications, about 15 involved minors, the statement said.

Speaking to public television on Monday morning, Pál Golopencza, head practitioner of the ambulance service, said that the service had deployed extra vehicles to deal with the increased demand. All cases were handled on time, he said.

A record low number of patients were brought to detoxification wards in Budapest,

public news channel M1 reported. Of a total of around 70 patients, at least two were minors, they said.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI