Sydney’s Harbour Bridge exploded in a spectacular blaze of New Year fireworks Friday as people around the globe began welcoming in 2011 with a glittering array of parties.
A fiery waterfall plunged from the landmark Australian structure as seven tonnes of fireworks ignited in the night sky, thrilling 1.5 million people crammed on the city’s foreshore.
The celebrations followed devastating floods that have hit 200,000 in the country’s northeast, muting the festivities there, while extreme heat prompted wildfire warnings around Melbourne and Adelaide in the south.
Earlier, the 6,000 residents of the tiny Pacific nation of Kiribati were the first to see in the new year, while New Zealand’s Auckland also marked the occasion with fireworks.
In Europe large crowds were set to throng landmarks like London’s Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower, following a big freeze that paralysed travel and cut power and water supplies for tens of thousands.
And New York workers were scrambling to plough snow out of Times Square for the famous New Year countdown, after a blizzard dumped 32 inches (80 centimetres) on the city and surrounding areas.
As many as a million people -- monitored by a high-tech police presence -- were expected to mass in Times Square.