Hampshire firefighters attacked with fireworks on Bonfire Night

We're told Hampshire fire crews were called out to a number of deliberate fires across the county last night (Thursday 5th November).

At some of those incidents, rockets were then thrown at the firefighters.

Hampshire's deputy chief fire officer Steve Apter said:

"It's deplorable. These are the people who are trying to keep us as safe as they can, who themselves are working in a high risk environment. The last thing we need is the community turning on us.

"A small number of individuals decided to use fireworks as a weapon against some of our firefighters, and they targeted them with rockets. Thankfully, no serious injuries, but as you can imagine, quite a traumatic experience for them."

Steve Apter's now calling for tighter restrictions on the sale of fireworks, to prevent such incidents.

There are calls for them to only be available for professionally organised events.

He says it's also not just firefighters bearing the brunt:

"We've seen an increase in attacks, both physically and verbal, across the piece and across the year. Society has to decide what it will tolerate and what it won't."