Ninety people were arrested at New Year’s Eve celebrations on the banks of the river Thames in London.
The Metropolitan police said a third of those people were detained because of drunken behaviour at the fireworks display, which was ticketed for the first time and attracted 100,000 people. A further 22 arrests were for assault and seven were for sexual offences.
The newly introduced restrictions on numbers meant crowd numbers were down by four-fifths from last year’s half a million.
Superintendent Robyn Williams said: “Our advice to the public was to avoid the area unless they had a ticket and they appeared to take this on board as we have seen lower numbers than in previous years.”
He said officers and stewards worked hard to keep people safe. “The event passed off safely and appeared to be enjoyed by the crowd.”
The police said the arrest figures did not include those made during a protest at Brixton prison under the banner #blacklivesmatter. According to multiple reports on Twitter, police used pepper spray to restrain demonstraters earlier in the evening and at least one arrest was made. Police have not yet been able to respond to either of these claims.
Police just peppersprayed protesters outside Brixton prison...
— righttoprotest (@righttoprotest) December 31, 2014
NYE demo at Brixton Prison. Police just sprayed some shit at us and my mouth and nose are burning up.
— Shelly Asquith (@ShellyAsquith) December 31, 2014
Around the UK other emergency services faced high demand. West Midlands ambulance service, which covers Birmingham and five other counties, said between 8pm on Wednesday and 4am on Thursday, handlers responded to 1,436 emergency calls.
East Midlands ambulance service said it had received a new call every 21 seconds, and about 340 calls during the first two hours of 2015. It said call handlers had managed to answer 99% of those within five seconds.
West Yorkshire police said it received nearly 1,200 calls between 6pm and 4am.
Early on New Year’s Day, London ambulance service tweeted: “It’s been an incredibly busy night. During peak times we were taking around 450 calls an hour.”
