Germany's Rhineland celebrates Carnival with tight security

Germany's Carnival celebrations have kicked off with revelers heading to Cologne and Düsseldorf in particular. Added security measures are in place following recent attacks during public events.

Huge crowds of costumed revelers took to German streets on Thursday as the much-loved Carnival celebrations got underway, with the two Rhineland Carnival bastions of Cologne and Düsseldorf a focus of the merrymaking.

The Carnival revelries, which will continue until Ash Wednesday (this year on March 5), are this year being monitored by police even more cautiously than usual amid reported threats circulated on social media, though Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) said none was particularly credible.

The heightened security also comes after a number of attacks on the public in recent months, including in the western German city of Solingen, in Aschaffenburg in the south and, most recently, in the Bavarian capital of Munich.

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