NEW YORK, Jan 1: An estimated 500,00 people celebrated wildly in Times Square at midnight, banishing the horrors of Sept 11 with a roaring, glittering, patriotic party to ring in the New Year.

The crowds gathered under the tightest security in the 97-year history of New Year’s celebrations in New York, roared in deafening unison the count down to 2002 as a glittering crystal ball dropped slowly from the flagpole at One Times Square amid the blinking and cascading neon lights of “The Crossroads of the World”.

“All my friends back in California thought that I was putting my life in danger by coming here, but I didn’t think so,” said Deborah Vegas of Oxnard, California. “I’m happy to say goodbye to 2001. It was a bad year and 2002 will be much better.”

“I’ve been planning to come down for this for over a year,” said Piero Salvo of Montreal in Canada. “I was supposed to come down with about six friends but they all bagged out. They were scared. What I believe is when it’s your time, it’s your time.”

Thousands waved US flags and red, white and blue streamers and balloons in a display of patriotism.

Times Square was under heavy guard, with mailboxes, garbage bins and news boxes removed and manhole covers sealed shut. The crowds were watched over by 7,000 members of the New York police department and the FBI.

In addition to the bioterror squads standing by, police were equipped with radiation detectors. Police used hand-held metal detectors and backpacks were banned.

Two minutes after midnight in Times Square, departing Mayor Rudolph Giuliani — who oversaw the steepest drop in crime in 30 years and made the world’s most diverse city safer and more governable — administered the oath of office to his successor, Michael Bloomberg.

Both men appeared emotional, their voices almost drowned out by the noise. Giuliani and Bloomberg embraced and shook hands after Bloomberg had finished taking the oath.—Reuters