The government may have imposed tougher regulations for letting off fireworks but the police do not have the capacity to make sure the laws are obeyed, police union chief Gerrit van de Kamp said on Monday in the AD.

‘If you want to do it properly, you need to use an awful lot of police officers or council staff,’ he said. ‘And that capacity is not available.’

Fireworks may only be set off between 18.00 hours on December 31 and 02.00 hours on January 1. However, the regulations are widely flouted.

The police tend to focus on the illegal firework trade. Every year tons of illegal fireworks are seized from sheds and private homes around the country.