Less mayhem on New Year’s Eve
Twenty-two calls made to the 112 hotline were in English
EMERGENCY services in the Valencia region were called out to deal with 1,354 incidents on New Year’s Eve compared with 1,485 last year.
Regional secretary for emergencies José María Ángel explained that these occurred between 20.00 on December 31 and 08.00 on January 1.
He noted that staff at the emergency headquarters in Valencia responded to a total of 4,393 phone calls during the 12hour period.
Sr Ángel said there were no very serious incidents despite the large number of call-outs.
He offered a breakdown of the figures, noting that emergency services attended 634 incidents in Valencia province, 577 in Alicante, 129 in Castellón and 14 which ‘still have to be categorised’.
Of the calls made in foreign languages, 22 were in English, three in French and one in German, ‘most of them after midnight and almost all from Alicante province’.
Sr Ángel noted that 732 of the calls-outs related to health, with 514 of those after midnight; and 326 were public security incidents (267 after midnight).
He highlighted the work done by all the emergency services during the 12-hour period, as well as the preparations which were carried out to ensure that the night could be celebrated ‘with minimum risks’.
To this end, regional police officers carried out 159 inspections of bars, clubs and restaurants before and during New Year’s Eve and started fining procedures in 28 cases.
Infractions included not closing on time, not having a licence and not having insurance.