Heart-shaped balloons, red roses and even tattoos were in high demand on Wednesday as people – and animals – around the world celebrated Valentine’s Day.
Vendors make the rounds of a busy street to sell heart-shaped balloons in Paranaque, south-east of Manila, Philippines (Bullit Marquez/AP)
This woman’s other half is in for a flowery surprise (Bullit Marquez/AP)
Meanwhile, thousands of students and staff from the Catholic-run St Scholastica’s College in Manila used the day to dance en masse on their campus to highlight the global issue of violence against women and children (Bullit Marquez/AP)
Young people in Afghanistan, such as this man in Kabul, have also marked the day by sending flowers to loved ones (Rahmat Gul/AP)
However, traditionally many Afghans are unaware of the day (Rahmat Gul/AP)
Brides and grooms wait for rituals to begin during a community mass wedding ceremony in Kolkata, India (Bikas Das/AP)
Back in the UK, Tattoo Fixers artist Alice Perrin joined forces with Domino’s to design a range of tattoos for dough-mantics looking to declare their love to pizza this Valentine’s Day (Matt Alexander/PA)
In Northern Ireland, same-sex marriage campaigners delivered Valentine’s Day cards to Stormont as talks to restore powersharing rumble on (David Young/PA)
A man kneels in front of a girl on the Bridge of Love in Kiev, Ukraine (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)
Olympic athletes also joined in, with US figure skater Chris Knierim giving partner Alexa Scimeca Knierim a Valentine’s present as they got their scores in Gangneung, South Korea (Morry Gash/AP)
The Norwegian Men’s Curling team sported Valentine’s Day-themed trousers (David Davies/PA)
African penguins were also looking for love at the California Academy of Sciences after biologists provided them with red felt hearts (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)
