New Year 2015: Google celebrates end of 2014 with a fireworks doodle

Spectacular celebrations across the world welcomed the New Year

Google celebrates the first day of 2015 with a Doodle (Google )

Google has celebrated the first day of 2015, with a colourful Doodle on its homepage.

The animation features cartoon fireworks, mimicking the spectacular displays seen across the world.

In London, the firework display was a ticket-only affair with an audience of 100,000 paying £10 to watch from the banks of the Thames.

Thousands of fireworks lit up Sydney Harbour Bridge as an estimated 1.5m people gathered to watch shimmering gold and silver palm trees.

And a tribute was paid to two people who died during the Sydney Lindt café siege in December in a display on the bridge’s pylons.

An extra 3,000 police officers had been drafted in to monitor celebrations and reassure partygoers.

In New Zealand, a huge clock in Auckland’s Sky Tower began a countdown which was followed by a firework display once midnight passed.

New Year celebrations were banned in Surabaya, Indonesia, following the loss of AirAsia flight 8501 and there were prayers said in the capital Jakarta at the annual night festival, which was a more sombre event than usual.

Skaters performed in Beijing’s Olympic park to highlight its bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Celebrations also took place at the foot of part of the Great Wall in the north west of the city.

Bells rang out in Japan’s Buddhist temples and large crowds gathered on Copacabana beach in Brazil to watch live performances.

A carnival was held in Johannesburg to try and deter petty crime which has blighted previous celebrations of the incoming year in South Africa.