As New Year’s Eve approaches, Vienna’s police are preparing for a battle against the bangs, flashes and hidden dangers of illegal fireworks. This year alone, authorities across Austria have registered 4,000 cases linked to banned pyrotechnics, and 700 of them were found in the capital, reported by Heute.
Federal Police Director Michael Takács shared the figures on Tuesday (November 10) during a site visit at Wien-Floridsdorf station. He was joined by State Secretary Barbara Eibinger-Miedl of the ÖVP, Czech Deputy Police President Tomáš Lerch and Manfred Ihle, chief commander of Vienna’s police standby unit.
Together with Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB), customs officers and Czech police, the Viennese force is tightening its grip. Trains heading toward Vienna are the main focus, along with the stations at Floridsdorf and Praterstern, while checks also continue at the national borders.
By the end of the year, Takács said, about 300 train patrols are planned. Officers will ride along on services from the Czech Republic into Austria and carry out checks in coordination with railway staff. A guide drawn up this year will help ÖBB employees spot suspicious cases and report them to police. “It matters enormously for our staff and our passengers that we do not carry pyrotechnic items into the south,” said ÖBB managing director Michaela Huber.
The forbidden fireworks are often bought in the Czech Republic and slipped into Austria across the green border or aboard public transport. “Some of it is then resold or passed on here,” Ihle explained. Besides bags and backpacks, even empty train seats become hiding places. “Sometimes they simply stash it somewhere on the train,” he said. Officers remove any discovered fireworks from the carriage as quickly as possible.
Young people are caught most often, police say, particularly teenagers between 12 and 18. The consequences can be grave. “We have already seen the first seriously injured,” Takács warned. “We don’t want that. We want nobody to be hurt at all.”
The message from the authorities is one of zero tolerance. Their goal is to choke off smuggling and resale, and the stepped-up operation is expected to run until after New Year’s Eve.
