A criminal network is behind the fireworks attacks against the police in Amsterdam’s Floradorp neighborhood on New Year’s Eve, National Police Chief Janny Knol said in the television program Pauw de Wit.

On New Year’s Eve, the police intervened multiple times after groups set fires on Dotterbloemstraat in the Floradorp neighborhood. Riot police had to disperse crowds so that firefighters could extinguish the fires. During these confrontations, people in the crowds pelted officers with fireworks. The unrest followed tension in Floradorp after Mayor Femke Halsema banned the city’s annual bonfire due to safety concerns.