BERLIN — German officials have called for restrictions on illegal fireworks as well as harsher sentences for rioters attacking emergency workers after five people were killed, and dozens of civilians and police officers were injured across Germany on New Year's Eve.

Officials have pointed particularly to the use of "kugelbomben" or bullet bombs — explosives that are legally restricted to professional firework displays — for the multiple injuries from fireworks across the country, including 17 in Berlin alone.

“The severity of the injuries [this year] is unusual,” a spokesperson for the UKB hospital in Berlin, where small children were brought in for serious injuries from fireworks, told local media.

"For young men, it's no longer enough that it's the sparkler. It is also no longer the legal firecracker," said Jochen Kopelke, federal chairman of the police union, GdP, adding that bullet bombs with more explosive power were being thrown into crowds. — Euronews