UK welcomes in New Year

BBC News

Millions across the UK are celebrating the start of the new year, with parties, music and fireworks.

Peach-flavoured snow and edible banana confetti fell on 50,000 revellers gathering by the River Thames for London's "multi-sensory" firework show.

Fireworks have already lit up the skies above three Scottish cities at 20:14 GMT to herald the change of date.

There were more fireworks in Cardiff, while Belfast's City Hall was lit up with rainbow colours.

Party atmosphere

In what was billed as "the world's first multi-sensory fireworks display", Londoners and city visitors were doused in apple, cherry and strawberry mists and big orange-scented bubbles.

Partygoers in an area the size of three football pitches were able to taste and smell the party atmosphere.

Another 100,000 or so lined the Thames, despite being beyond the reach of the mist and bubbles. They were given packs of fruit sweets and LED wristbands.

London Mayor Boris Johnson said there was "no better way" to celebrate the highs of 2013 and the start of an exciting new year than by seeing "one of the world's most dazzling firework displays, now augmented in more ways than one".

Buses, the Tube, Docklands Light Railway, tram and some National Rail services in Greater London will run all night and will be mostly free from 23:45 until 04:30.

Edinburgh's famous Hogmanay street party, part of three days of celebrations, attracted an estimated 80,000 people.

The Pet Shop Boys are sharing the Concert in the Gardens stage with the 1975 and Nina Nesbitt, while the street party has music on three stages from the likes of King Creosote and Django Django.

Traditional Scottish music is playing at The Keilidh, an outdoor dance event.

Simultaneous firework displays took place in Edinburgh, Inverness, Stirling and the Aberdeenshire town of Stonehaven at 20:14 mark the start of Scotland's Year of Homecoming, a year-long programme of events alongside the Commonwealth Games and Ryder Cup.

Simple Minds were scheduled to headline the Open Air in the Square event in Stonehaven, where a fireball swinging procession will also take place in the old town.

In Stirling more than 5,000 people are expected at an outdoor party at Stirling Castle Esplanade, headlined by Deacon Blue.

In Glasgow bagpipers, drummers and dancers are performing during the city's "Hogmanayday" on Tuesday between 12:00 GMT and 22:00.

Mystery runner

In Wales, 1,200 runners were expected to join the annual Nos Galan evening road race near Mountain Ash in the Cynon Valley.

The four-mile race has been run for 55 years in honour of 18th Century athlete Griffith Morgan and is always led by a "mystery" international sporting star - this year Wales rugby star Alun Wyn Jones.

In Belfast, lights at City Hall counted down to midnight, and in Londonderry its last few hours as the UK City of Culture 2013 were marked with a service in the cathedral.

Forecasters say a band of showers, possibly bringing hail and thunder, is likely to pass across the UK throughout New Year's Eve afternoon and evening.

By midnight, skies should clear in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but there is still a risk of rain in the south of England.

Temperatures across the UK, as the new year is seen in, will range from 4C to 9C, BBC Weather's Nina Ridge says.