Sydney brings in New Year with nod to victims of Bondi attack

Fireworks burst over the Sydney Harbour Bridge as New Year's celebrations begin in Sydney, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — Australia’s Sydney began 2026 with a fireworks display held under an enhanced police presence, weeks after gunmen killed 15 people at a Jewish event in the city.

Sydney’s annual New Year’s Eve celebrations are known globally for their spectacular fireworks, with 40,000 pyrotechnic effects stretching seven km (four miles) across buildings and barges along its harbor, including the city’s iconic Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

Organizers held a minute’s silence for the victims of the attack at 11:00 p.m. local time (1200 GMT), with the Harbour Bridge lit up in white and a menorah - a symbol long used to symbolize Judaism - projected onto its pylons.

“After a tragic end to the year for our city, we hope that New Year’s Eve will provide an opportunity to come together and look with hope for a peaceful and happy 2026,” Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore said ahead of the event.

The father and son gunmen are alleged to have killed 15 people at a Hanukkah event on December 14, Australia’s worst mass shooting in almost three decades that shocked the nation and stoked fears of rising antisemitism in the country.

Traditional Christmas celebrations at Bondi were muted this year, and several New Year events planned there were canceled.

Around 3,000 police, some carrying long arms, were deployed in the city during the main New Year celebrations, that typically attract over a million revelers.

“We have to show defiance in the face of this terrible crime and say that we’re not going to be cowed by this kind of terrorism, and we’re not going to change the way we live our life in our beautiful city,” New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said on Wednesday.

Reporting by Alasdair Pal in Sydney; Editing by Michael Perry, Reuters