European cities were on high alert for a possible terrorist attack on New Year’s Eve, with celebrations cancelled or limited in some places.

On their Twitter feed, Munich police said: ‘Good morning to those, who spent the night out in #munich!

The two stations were shut down and evacuated around midnight, while special unit police officers armed with automatic weapons were stationed at entrances.

Police insisted that the Munich warning had been so credible that they had had no choice but to act, but they acknowledged that they had made no arrests and had not launched a manhunt for specific suspects.

Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae said police have been unable to find the suspects. “We’re working hard right now to try to establish the whereabouts of these people named and whether they are in Germany or Europe”.

Germany and Russian Federation on Friday emptied a number of railway stations after an alert was issued of the possibility of terror attacks.

The interior minister of Bavaria told reporters that the government had received leads pointing to a group of five to seven potential IS sympathizers plotting several coordinated suicide attacks in the Bavarian capital.

“The Federal Criminal Authority informed Bavarian police of indications provided by a friendly intelligence service that the IS was planning an attack at tonight midnight (10:00am AEDT) at Munich’s main rail station and/or Pasing station”.

The threat involved suicide attacks on trains, prompting station closures.

Authorities said they had received personal data, including the names of some of the militants and were still in the process of investigating and verifying the information. “There is as before a high threat of terror”, a police spokesman said, saying the investigation was ongoing.

A suicide bomb threat by the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) led to machine gun-toting police officers evacuating two of the city’s busiest train stations at 11pm on New Year’s Eve.

It read: “The situation in Europe and Germany continues to be serious in the new year”.

Germany had been tipped off by both USA and French authorities, it said.

Police reinforcements were deployed to Munich from other parts of Bavaria. “Thanks for staying calm and for your understanding concerning our measures”, the latest message in English said.

154-a-16-(Sajjan Gohel (SAH’-zhahn GOH’-hehl), director for global security, Asia Pacific Foundation, in AP interview)-“number of occasions”-Security analyst Sajjan Gohel says the terror threat in Munich comes as no surprise”.

Munich police said officials had deemed the information about the threat of an attack on New Year’s Eve as serious and credible.

With memories of the recent ISIS terror attacks in France, residents of Paris saw soldiers out on the streets, and Berlin, Istanbul, London, and Madrid also had a heightened presence of police in the streets as the people of Europe turned out to celebrate the arrival of 2016.