Defying terror threats, global New Year party kicks off
Sports Page 28
SYDNEY, Dec 31 (AFP) - Global terror attacks have cast a pall over New Year celebrations but Sydney today defied the threats and rang in 2017 with a firework extravaganza on the glittering 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, and atrocities in Turkey and the Middle East.
But New South Wales state premier Mike Baird urged “business as usual” in Australia's biggest city where 1.5 million people were to watch the midnight fireworks.
“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,” Baird said.
Some 2,000 extra officers were deployed following the arrest of a man for allegedly making threats against Sydney's big show in an online blog.
There have been a number of other reported threats this holiday period, in Asia-Pacific and elsewhere.
In Melbourne, police foiled a “significant” Islamic Stateinspired terror plot planned for Christmas Day targeting the city with explosives.
Indonesia also said it foiled plans by an Islamic State-linked group for a Christmas-time suicide bombing, and 52 died in the Philippines in bomb attacks blamed on Islamist militants over the holidays.
Israel on Friday issued a www. sundaytimes. lk warning of imminent “terrorist attacks” to tourists and western targets in India, telling its citizens to avoid public places.
Safety measures Security concerns have hit many New Year events with truck blockades a new tactic to try to prevent vehicles ploughing into crowds. Sydney used garbage trucks as safety barriers.
The German capital beefed up security after the December 19 carnage, deploying hundreds more police, some armed with machine-guns.
“This year, what's new is that we will place concrete blocks and position heavy armoured vehicles at the entrances” to the zone around Brandenburg Gate, a police spokesman said.
In Cologne, after a wave of sexual attacks last year, 1,800 police personnel were deployed -- compared to just 140 in 2015.
In neighbouring Austria police handed out 6,000 free pocket alarms -- which emit a shrill noise when activated -- to help stop assaults on women.
In Paris, a firework display lit the skies again this year, after muted 2015 celebrations in the aftermath of the November 13 massacre of 130 people.
Nearly 100,000 police, gendarmes and soldiers were deployed across France against the jihadist threat.
With more than a million people turning out to watch the ball drop in Times Square, New York is deploying 165 “blocker” trucks and some 7,000 men.
Rome deployed armoured vehicles and greater numbers of security forces around the Coliseum and at St Peter's Square where the Pope gave the midnight mass.
Moscow police deployed more than 5,000 officers backed by 8,000 members of the new national guard and 2,000 volunteer militia to maintain order. Thousands traditionally gathered in Red Square, but for the second year in a row, the area was open solely to 6,000 invitees.
London had 3,000 officers on patrol with crowds flocking to line the banks of the Thames to watch the fireworks around the London Eye ferris wheel.
In Dubai, the gigantic pyrotechnics off the world's highest skyscraper were going ahead, despite a major tower block blaze nearby last year.