New Year celebrations roll on in shadow of terror threats

Suspected IS members arrested in USA, Indonesia, Belgium and Turkey as revellers around the world usher in 2016 amid heightened security. 

Thousands defied terror fears to celebrate the New Year on the Champs-Elysees in Paris
Thousands defied terror fears to celebrate the New Year on the Champs-Elysees in Paris

Millions celebrated the dawning of the New Year on Friday, although tightened security put a damper on festivities in Europe where Germany evacuated stations in Munich over an imminent terror threat.

Half an hour before the celebrations commenced in Germany, police evacuated two stations in Munich after receiving “reliable information” about an imminent plot to carry out a suicide attack at midnight by ISIS jihadists.

Police said they were hunting “five to seven suspects” after being tipped off by a “friendly intelligence service”, reportedly in France.

Europe has been on high alert since the Paris attacks on 13 November and indeed France and Belgium scrapped their traditional fireworks displays over the heightened terrorist threats.

Belgian police also held five people over an alleged New Year terror plot in Brussels and announced the arrest of a 10th suspect in connection to the Paris attacks.

The United Kingdom deployed around 3,000 police officers in central London in a reportedly unprecedented security effort. In Italy, fireworks were banned in towns and cities due to fears that the explosions could spark panic.

In New York, around 6,000 police stood watch over a bustling Times Square in what they later described as the biggest security operation in the city’s history”.

US officials later said they had arrested and charged a 25-year-old American Muslim convert over an alleged attempt to launch a terror attack in upstate New York in the name of ISIS.

In Moscow, police for the first time closed off the Red Square where thousands of revellers usually gather.

Turkish police also arrested two ISIS suspects allegedly planning terror attacks in the centre of Ankara.

Jakarta remained on high alert throughout the night, after anti-terror police foiled detailed plans for an alleged New Year suicide attack in the Indonesian capital.

In a Dubai, a vast blaze ripped through a luxury 63-storey hotel, the Address Downtown, where people had gathered to usher in the New Year.

Yet by and large, celebrations rolled on, including in Paris where crowds gathered at the Champs Elysees in what was the largest public gathering in the city since the attacks.