Happy New Year: World celebrates arrival of 2023; skies dazzle up with firecrackers

India and the world are ringing in 2023 with celebrations and parties, amid concerns about Covid-19 cases surging in some countries.

New Delhi, Dec 31: India and the world are ringing in 2023 with celebrations and parties, amid concerns about Covid-19 cases surging in some countries. New Zealand and Australia welcomed 2023 with massive fireworks after two years of disruptions due to Covid.

After Covid halted festivities in 2020 and 2021, large crowds gathered in New Zealand and became one of the first major cities to celebrate the New Year.

Celebrations are being held at the Great Wall in Beijing, while in Shanghai authorities said traffic will be stopped along the waterfront Bund to allow pedestrians to gather on New Year's Eve. Shanghai Disneyland will also hold a special fireworks show to welcome 2023.

On the last day of the year marked by the brutal war in Ukraine, many in the country returned to capital Kyiv to spend New Year's Eve with their loved ones.

In India, the police in all the major cities across the country prepared for crowd control on New Year's eve.

The police in Chhattisgarh's Raipur are using catchy social media posts and videos to warn people against drinking and driving. In one of the posts in Hindi, the police said speeding drivers will have to usher in the New Year inside a police lock-up.

In Gujarat, anticipating heavy footfall in public places, the Gujarat police have made elaborate security arrangements and warned people against taking drugs and alcohol.

Organisers of midnight parties reported encouraging response and said tickets are being bought online in large numbers. This will be the first time in two years that celebrations will be held without COVID-19 norms, news agency PTI reported.

In Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya, security has been tightened for better crowd control. "On the basis of reports from government departments, we are prepared to manage a crowd of 50 lakh devotees in Ayodhya on the first day of the New Year," Senior Superintendent of Police Muniraj told PTI.

It has been a good Christmas-New Year week for Rajasthan's tourism sector, with hotels and resorts packed with visitors. The footfall of tourists in Rajasthan is the highest after the pandemic that started in 2020 and affected the sector in 2021 also.

A man was arrested in Mumbai for allegedly threatening bomb blasts at some places in the city on New Year's eve, the police said today. The accused, Narendra Kavale, was arrested from Dharavi.

The Uttar Pradesh Police have issued directives to all security personnel and deployed adequate number of patrolling vehicles at crowded places to prevent any law and order situation in the state.