Residents were left in terror after an incident where tourists ran riot setting off tampered with and illegal firewords. The incident in Valencia, Spain sparked anger and the auithorities said it was worse than the tourism problems caused by binge drinking, officials said at a press conference to discuss the problem.

Organised groups of German and Dutch youths travel are being blamed for travelling to Valencia to set off deafening bangs. Frightened residents took to social media when the first huge bangs went off, according to El Confidencial. “What on earth was that? Did you hear that explosion? It sounded like a bomb,” Javier said in his friends’ WhatsApp group. On X, barely two minutes after the bang, the first nervous comments begin to appear: “Something big has exploded in Parque del Lebón; does anyone know anything?” says one user. “It was heard even in Campanar; how scary,” said another.

From March 16 to 18, every night at midnight hours, the sky of Valencia transforms into an illuminated canvas with dazzling fireworks. However this year one blast was so huge had some believing it was a gas leak – in fact it was caused by a massive homemade firecracker and The blast was heard across almost the entire city and quickly went viral on social media, leaving citizens and security forces stunned. Even a team from TEDAX, the police’s explosives unit, arrived at the scene.

After inspecting with a thermal camera the large two-metre-wide crater caused by the detonation, firefighters and security forces determined it was an explosion from a high-intensity pyrotechnic device someone had launched in a park. The perpetrators fled, but a nearby cleaning worker had to be attended to by SAMU (emergency services). Miguel Muñiz, who lives in the building opposite where it happened, remembers that night well: “We couldn’t sleep. The next morning, I went down to buy bread and saw that the floor was full of shattered glass from the blast. The windows of the other building were the same. We were genuinely scared,” this neighbour tells El Confidencial.

The authorities in the local council and police believe there’s an organised group of Germans and Dutch enthusiasts of illegal pyrotechnics who come to Spain every year for the Valencian Fallas and engage in criminal activities. Just days before this incident, National Police had arrested 12 men aged between 21 and 44 for belonging to a criminal group, illegal possession, manipulation and homemade manufacturing of explosives, public disorder and assaulting authority. During these arrests, officers faced mass launching of pyrotechnic material by some group members and seized over 2.5 kilos of highly dangerous pyrotechnic material.

Some members of these groups, now under police investigation, have YouTube, Instagram or TikTok channels dedicated to this activity. One called ‘StreetFireworker’ has over 150,000 followers. In it, creators film themselves touring Spanish cities, attending fireworks shows and manipulating various types of homemade pyrotechnics to create large explosions. “4.2 kilos of firecrackers + Police,” reads one video title with over 200,000 views, showing several youths detonating a powder-filled device at Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias while fleeing from officers.

In other videos they can be seen with their country’s flags chanting songs placed front row at Mascletá in Plaza del Ayuntamiento or alongside Cabalgata del Ninot. They don’t hide from authorities who have started patrolling the old Turia riverbed—a place turned last month into a battlefield with young Dutch gathering to throw illegal pyrotechnic material at each other, also targeting police officers when they arrived.

Security Councillor Jesús Carbonell explained at a press conference that this year, up to 200 people have been identified for illegal use of firecrackers, half being from outside Spain: “We will not tolerate firing prohibited material; protecting our neighbours is a priority; we will remain vigilant,” he commented, emphasising surprise. “There are agencies organising fireworks trips and package tours in Valencia.”

“It’s a type of tourism that aims to launch illegal fireworks products that they themselves make by hand, with a large amount of gunpowder, which is extremely dangerous,” explained Antonio Castro, superintendent of the Valencia Local Police, on a program on A Punt TV. “This type of tourism is mainly promoted by Dutch, Belgian, and German people, who have created ties and meet through social media to come to our country,” he added.