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Police and paramedics have praised the behaviour of New Year's Eve revellers across New South Wales, despite 31 arrests and two fireworks accidents that left people critically hurt.
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Mick Fuller said incidents and arrests in Sydney were "significantly down" on last year.
"We saw well over a million people come into the city and jam into the best seats in the house quite early during the course of the day and celebrate what was one of the safest New Year's Eves we've ever had," he said.
Huge crowds flocked to harbourside vantage points to see three fireworks shows, with a large light bulb display on the Sydney Harbour Bridge central to the midnight spectacle.
Thousands of revellers continued partying well into the morning, with venue lock-out laws in the CBD and Kings Cross relaxed to allow patrons to enter pubs and clubs after the usual 1:30am cut-off time.
Assistant Commissioner Fuller apologised to partygoers who were physically pushed out of some CBD streets by officers to allow council clean-up efforts to begin about 2:00am.
"Unfortunately we deal with people who are intoxicated and who often refuse directions and some of those people have to be physically moved out of the way," he said.
"So whilst I apologise to those people, they [the police] had an important job to do."
He said most of the arrests were for minor incidents.
Two men, aged 37 and 32, were charged with assaulting police in St Clair after one officer was allegedly struck in the head and another sustained knee injuries.
Knuckle dusters were allegedly seized from a 16-year-old boy at Coogee in an incident that remains under investigation.
Police are also reviewing CCTV footage after a man, 23, sustained a head injury during a brawl between two groups outside the Newtown Hotel in Sydney's inner-west.
At Sans Souci, in Sydney's south, a 29-year-old man was critically injured after he attempted to light fireworks on a beach.
He was taken to St George Hospital with head and facial injuries.
A 22-year-old man was also critically injured in a similar incident at Shelly Beach on the state's central coast.
He was flown to the Royal North Shore Hospital.
"Both patients have suffered significant burn injuries as a result of the fireworks explosions," NSW Ambulance Senior Assistant Commissioner David Dutton said.
Topics: carnivals-and-festivals, police, sydney-2000, shelly-beach-2261, nsw
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