Police in Munich are hunting for seven suspected suicide bombers after they evacuated two major railway stations due to warnings of a "serious, imminent" Isis terror threat to the city's New Year celebrations.
According to local radio station BR, more than 500 police officers have been deployed to hunt an alleged seven person Iraqi suicide cell which was based in the city.
Authorities asked people to stay away from the city's main train station and a second train station in the city's Pasing neighbourhood.
Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told reporters Friday night at Munich's police headquarters authorities had received information that the militant group Isis was behind the threat.
Munich police president Hubertus Andrae said German authorities had been tipped off by a foreign intelligence service that Isis was planning attacks with five to seven suicide bombers, the German news agency dpa reported.
Police spokesman Werner Kraus told The Associated Press that "after evaluating the situation, we started evacuating the train stations and also asked partygoers to stay away from big crowds outside."
The warning came only hours before the city rang in the new year.
Despite police warnings to stay away from big crowds, thousands of people were on the streets of Munich at midnight to welcome 2016 with fireworks.
Dpa reported massive delays in the city's public transportation system after both train stations were quickly evacuated and trains were no longer stopped there.
It comes as Paris cancelled it's traditional fireworks display in favor of a 5-minute video performance at the Arc de Triomphe just before midnight, relayed on screens along the Champs Elysee, where people chanted.
Cities across Europe have been on edge since a terror attack in Paris in November killed 130 people.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said the show was aimed at "sending the world the message that Paris is standing, proud of its lifestyle and living together."
Meanwhile Brussels cancelled its own fireworks display earlier this week after the arrest of two men in connection an alleged attempt to attack it.
A further six people were arrested yesterday in connection with the plot. Beligan authorities also announced they had placed a tenth person under formal investigation in connection with the Paris attacks.
London's celebrations went ahead as planned but with unconfirmed reports that Scotland Yard cancelled the leave of all firearms officers in the capital.
The force insisted that the deployment of 3,000 police officers for the event was a typical precaution and did not represent heightened security.
A US man was arrested and charged on suspicion of plotting a terror style attack on a restaurant in Rochester in New York state.
New York City saw the deployment of 6,000 police officers armed with dogs, radiation detectors and sniper rifles.
Additional reporting by AP.
