The police intervened in New Year’s Eve brawls, helped drunk tourists find accommodation and detained two residents of Mazovia who may be involved in the stabbing of a young man.
In total, nearly 870 police interventions were recorded last night in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. In Zakopane, where the largest organized New Year’s Eve party in the region took place, the police had a particularly busy night. There, approximately 45,000 spectators welcomed the New Year.
According to the Zakopane police spokesman, Asp. staff. Roman Wieczorek, at the climax, there were 30,000 spectators in front of the stage on Równia Krupowa, and nearly 15,000 people were partying nearby. – We did not record any serious incidents while securing a mass event – noted the policeman.
Fights on Krupówki
Numerous arguments and fights involving drunk and aggressive tourists occurred in the Krupówki area and on the outskirts of the center of Zakopane. These events intensified around 1 a.m.
– In the Tatra district, from 18 to 4 we recorded as many as 83 various types of interventions. The police helped many intoxicated people find a place to stay, and in other cases detained them until they sobered up, saving them from hypothermia, the spokesman reported.
The police also intervened against dangerous lighting of fireworks and their sellers. Several people were detained to clarify criminal cases, including two men from Mazovia, who may be related to the stabbing of a young tourist in the area of ul. Kasprowicz. There was also an accident in Kościelisko, in which a man fell out of a window on the second floor of a guesthouse.
Fire in Biały Dunajec
Around 1:30 a.m., a fire broke out in a residential building in Biały Dunajec. Fortunately, all endangered people were evacuated in time. Until the early morning hours, police officers responded to numerous disturbances of public order and riots.
– To sum up, several detained people, nearly a hundred interventions, a fire and a knife injury to a young tourist are the result of only a few hours of New Year’s Eve near the Tatra Mountains. Despite several dozen thousand spectators, no serious incident occurred during the concert – concluded Wieczorek. He emphasized that nearly 300 Małopolska policemen were watching over the safety of tourists in the capital of the Tatra Mountains and the surrounding area.
Katarzyna Cisło from the press team of the Małopolska police informed that on New Year’s Eve in the entire region, the police recorded nearly 870 interventions. Most often, they concerned arguments after drinking alcohol.
There were four cases of using a dangerous tool during an argument under the influence of alcohol – three in Kraków and one in Sucha Beskidzka. In the latter case, two brothers used a knife to quarrel over a girl. There was no life threat in any of these incidents, Cisło noted.
In Krakow, during a brawl during a party on ul. Łanówa police detained five aggressive people. Eight drunk drivers and two under the influence of intoxicants were also detained. There were four accidents on the roads, with no fatalities.
Main photo source: PAP/Grzegorz Momot