At Helsinki’s Senate Square, some 30,000 people gathered to see performances by singer Jari Sillanpää, the Out’n’Loud gay choir, beat boxer Felix Zenger and the Step Up Dancers along with speeches by bishop Irja Askola and Helsinki mayor Jussi Pajunen. Helsinki’s year as World design capital began with a spectacular light display on the stroke of midnight.
Despite an over 30 percent increase in attendance compared with the previous New Year celebrations in Helsinki, police say the event passed off peacefully.
Jyväskylä police are investigating the death of a young man, who was found dead at a private apartment in the city. Several people are being questioned over the incident.
Hospitals reported several eye injuries from fireworks. Helsinki’s specialist eye injury clinic treated four people for their injuries, three of them children, while nationwide around ten people sought medical attention for eye injuries caused by fireworks.
Some municipalities banned fireworks in city centres, or other areas where they could be particularly dangerous. A warehouse in the Pirkanmaa town of Viiala burned down, with fireworks identified by police as a likely cause.
Police reported that shots were fired at a restaurant at the spa hotel in Naantali on the south-west coast, but nobody was injured and the situation was over quickly. Police are investigating the incident, but nobody has been arrested yet.
