Tight security will be in place to protect New Year’s Eve revelers around the world after a year when Islamist terrorism spread far beyond the crucible of the Middle East.
A midnight fireworks display in Paris, where 130 people were killed by Isis jihadists last month, has been scrapped to encourage people to go home early. The authorities in Brussels also called off their traditional fireworks show and other festivities after the arrest of two men suspected of planning to attack celebrations there.
With cities around the world on alert, other anti-terrorism measures include:
• Nearly six thousand police officers guarding Times Square in New York — the “crossroads of the world” — after a terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, this month and a threat to the city in an Isis video.
• A ban on bags being carried on the “party mile” leading to the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
• The use of bangers and fireworks to welcome in the new year being suspended by more than 850 towns and cities on the Italian peninsula.
• Extra security in Turkey, where two alleged Isis militants were arrested on suspicion of planning suicide attacks at new year celebrations.
About 60,000 police officers and soldiers will be on duty across France tonight. The Paris police prefecture said that the risk of another massacre remained high and that the celebrations on the Champs Élysées would be curtailed. With police anxious to limit gatherings that could provide terrorists with easy targets, cars will be allowed back on to the avenue at 12.30am, rather than at 3am as in previous years. Although officials have allowed a sound-and-light show at the Arc de Triomphe, it will last ten minutes rather than 20 as scheduled. “This is not a New Year’s Eve celebration like in other years,” a Paris police spokesman said.
A million people are expected in Times Square and each will have to pass through checkpoints staffed by the New York police department, which began closing roads in midtown Manhattan yesterday morning.
In Ankara, Turkish police claimed to have foiled an attack after seizing a suicide vest and an explosive device packed with ball bearings and metal sticks loaded into a backpack. The discovery was made in the poor district of Mamak where the two suspects, aged 28 and 40, were arrested without a fight.
Both men were said to have fought in Syria and one was said to hold Turkey responsible for the deaths of his brother and uncle, who died fighting for Isis.
Yvan Mayeur, the mayor of central Brussels, said that the decision to cancel celebrations at the Grand Place followed a risk analysis by the Belgian national security centre. Tens of thousands of people had been expected to congregate there, with a fireworks show planned for the Place de Brouckère.
The authorities said that the arrests after raids on Sunday and Monday showed the serious threat of attacks in the Belgian capital, where the ringleaders of the Paris attacks lived.
Rome will mobilise more than 1,500 police officers carrying portable metal detectors to screen people arriving for a pop concert in the Circus Maximus.
There will be similar security at a concert in front of Milan Cathedral, where fireworks have been banned because of the city’s smog emergency. Fire risk, distress to animals and “the current geopolitical situation” have also been invoked to justify the ban.
This week Italy expelled a 40-year-old Moroccan man who allegedly said that he wanted to blow up Rome and who was denounced to the police by his brother because of his extreme anti-western views. Adil Bamaarouf, who lived near Padua, was deported on Tuesday on the orders of Angelino Alfano, the interior minister.
Despite Australia’s terrorist threat level remaining at “probable”, Sydney police told revellers not to avoid the city. “There are thousands of additional police and emergency service workers and government departments that will work from tomorrow morning to ensure that New Year’s Eve is a safe and family friendly event,” Mick Fuller, of New South Wales police, said.
On Boxing Day police in Melbourne mounted extraordinary security measures for the opening of the Test match between Australia and West Indies. Spectators were scanned by metal detectors and had to pass through a 1.8m (6ft) high fence built 25m outside the entrances to Melbourne Cricket Ground. The ground’s authorities said that the measures were a precaution after the terrorist attacks on Paris.
Agencies
