New Yorkers mark start of 2024 with Times Square's iconic ball drop

New Year's Eve at Times Square in New York was celebrated Sunday with confetti and cheers from thousands of people, marking the start of 2024 with the descent of the famous colourful ball.

Despite ongoing global conflicts and security concerns, New York marked a hopeful beginning of 2024 with the iconic ball drop at the major commercial intersection popular among tourists in the city.

"It's beautiful," a resident of Charlotte, North Carolina, told ABC7 seconds past midnight as Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" blared from speakers in the square known as the Crossroads of the World.

The midnight march across time zones marked the New Year celebrations first in Australia, where over 1 million people watched a pyrotechnic display around Sydney's Opera House and harbour bridge.

This event, equivalent to one in five of the city's residents, brought joy across the globe, promoting optimism for a more joyful new year.

Before midnight arrived in Times Square, two residents of Columbus, Ohio, December Lee, 26, and Shadayah Lawrence, 25, said their New York visit highlighted four years of travelling the globe.

"It is a good way to bring in the new year," Lee said.

Also in Times Square, Tyrell Jacobs, 27, and Sarah Crayton, 26, of New Orleans arrived 15 hours before midnight and got engaged in streets packed with tens of thousands of people counting first the hours and then the minutes until midnight.

"It's definitely a must-see. At least go once, you know, just to experience the magic," Crayton said of the colourful cast of strangers nearby in tall hats and blowing noisemakers even before the ball dropped.

A small army of thousands of police officers dispersed across New York City as it has seen near-daily protests sparked by the Israel-Hamas war.

The luminous ball, bedazzled with 2,688 crystal triangles, is fixed to the pole from which it made its 60-second descent at 11:59pm.