Australia rang in the New Year with a spectacular fireworks display in Sydney, sending rainbow-coloured showers into the night sky and defying the global terror attacks that cast a pall over 2016.
Around 1.5mn people packed Australia’s biggest city to watch as the midnight fireworks erupted from Sydney Harbour Bridge, with the extravaganza beamed to television sets and phones across the world.
Japan also ushered in 2017 in style, with thousands packing the streets of Tokyo and releasing balloons into the air in celebration of the new year.
Sydney’s visual feast paid tribute to some of the international musical legends who died this year, including David Bowie and Prince, with purple rain pouring off the bridge in an early display and firework “stars” soaring high above the harbour.
2016 has seen repeated bloodshed, most recently a deadly truck attack at a Berlin Christmas market, a similar incident on Bastille Day in France that killed 86 people, and atrocities in Turkey and the Middle East.
But the New South Wales state premier urged “business as usual” as a larger-than-usual crowd gathered due to the weekend timing and warm weather.
“My encouragement to everyone is to enjoy New Year’s Eve...in the knowledge that police are doing everything they can to keep us safe,” Premier Mike Baird said.
Around 2,000 extra officers were deployed in Sydney after a man was arrested for allegedly making online threats against the celebrations.
There were a number of other reported threats during the holiday period, in Asia-Pacific and elsewhere.
In Melbourne, police foiled a “significant” Islamic State-inspired Christmas Day terror plot.
Indonesia said it foiled plans by an IS-linked group for a Christmas-time suicide bombing, and 52 died in the Philippines in bomb attacks blamed on militants.
Israel on Friday issued a warning of imminent “terrorist attacks” to tourists and western targets in India.
Despite the terror fears, revellers in Hong Kong and Taipei were expected to throng city streets to watch firework performances.
Shoppers in Japan had earlier filled markets to buy tuna and crabs — seen as expensive items for special feasts — for New Year’s Day family gatherings.
Security concerns have hit many New Year events with truck blockades a new tactic to try to prevent vehicles ploughing into crowds, with Sydney using garbage trucks.
Normally boisterous Bangkok will see in the new year on a more sombre note as the nation grieves for King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died in October.
And, at the stroke of midnight, the celebrations will last one second longer — a leap second — decreed by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service to allow astronomical time to catch up with atomic clocks that have called the hour since 1967.




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