New Year’s Eve celebrations have begun to kick off around the world, with Samoa the first country to welcome in 2018.
The tiny pacific island saw in the new year at 10am GMT, with New Zealand following an hour later.
In Australia, 2018 arrived at 1pm GMT with as many as one million people watching Sydney harbour’s world famous fireworks.
North Korea’s Pyongyang display outshone that of Japan half an hour earlier.
But both were dwarfed by a 10-minute extravaganza on Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour.
Whatsapp went down as India and Sri Lanka celebrated their New Year, prompting thousands to complain they could not send messages to friends and family.
Rail strikes and Storm Dylan were expected to disrupt New Year’s Eve travel in the UK, with gusts of up to 80mph forecast in Northern Ireland and Scotland.
The last places on Earth to greet the new year will be US islands such as Baker Island and Howland Island, where 2018 will arrive at noon GMT on 1 January.
