Armed gangs on rampage [Muslims in Sydney Australia]
Sydney Morning Herald ^ | December 13, 2005 | By Malcolm Brown, Les Kennedy, Jared Wormald and Robert Wainwright
SYDNEY erupted in a second night of racial violence last night as Middle Eastern mobs stabbed a woman, assaulted others and smashed shops around Cronulla, while up to 600 young men - armed with guns and crowbars - prepared for a battle.
In a terrifying escalation of the conflict, up to 70 cars from Hurstville invaded Cronulla and Brighton-le-Sands to launch revenge attacks, following the vicious attacks by Cronulla locals on people of Middle Eastern appearance on Sunday.
Twenty carloads of men arrived at Cronulla by about 10.30pm, smashing shops, and cars in Elouera Road, and threatening people who got in their way. They reportedly stabbed a woman at Carringbah, but her condition was unknown.
About 11.30pm a group of about 100 Cronulla locals surrounded a car carrying men of Middle Eastern appearance, but police cleared the crowd and let the car escape.
Hours earlier, about 200 men had assembled outside Lakemba Mosque - some armed with Glock pistols - and dozens more gathered at Campsie. They were preparing to travel to Maroubra Beach, where up to 300 locals, many armed with crowbars, waited for an arranged fight, according to "Bra Boys" at the beach.
But some young Muslims said they had gathered to protect the mosque because of a threatened attack on it by a gang from the southern beaches.
Following Sunday's riot at Cronulla beach - when local mobs had bashed people of Middle Eastern appearance - police confiscated iron bars and other weapons at Maroubra last night and blocked roads around the mosque. About 20 police cars surrounded the mosque, where four men showed their pistols and ammunition to a news crew, and boasted that others were carrying arms.
At 10.45pm, on the Kingsway at Caringbah, about 12 cars sped by, followed by another vehicle that stopped. Four men got out and began attacking patrons of Antonio's Pizzeria. They knocked a woman unconscious on the footpath and smashed the window of a denture clinic.
Thai-born Suchada Goodier, 44, owner of a Thai restaurant on the Kingsway, said she was walking on the street when she was attacked. The group then started bashing her car. "What have I done?" she said.
"I have done nothing."
In Bay Street, Brighton-le-Sands, a young woman was sitting in a car when men approached and opened the door to her vehicle and put a hand up her dress, saying: "We are going to rape you, you Aussie sluts."
[snip] |
