Downpour stops to let evening sky explode in sea of colour

The heavens closed long enough for the fireworks.

Unlike the sunset ceremony at East Tamar, hit by heavy rain less than an hour before, the 20-minute, $3.9 million show was given a long enough respite to entertain hundreds of thousands of people near the Convention Centre.

But heavy security, tight crowd control measures and road blocks meant the public was kept away from the best viewpoints.

Chek Lap Kok airport engineer Gilbert Legaspi said: 'We were standing far from the shoreline so we couldn't see much. But the people were feeling positive.' Police estimated 400,000 people watched the show from Tsim Sha Tsui and 23,000 saw it from the Hong Kong side.

Twenty-seven tonnes of fireworks sent more than 19,500 explosions across the night sky in multi-coloured rings and fireballs.

Technicians used Roman candles to send out separate bursts of sparks and coloured flames.