Armed police patrol Sydney beaches to defuse mob violence

A man struggles with police on Cronulla Beach. Chris McGrath/Getty Images

CANBERRA - A police strike force was last night hunting ringleaders of the 5000-strong mob that bashed people of Middle Eastern appearance on Sydney beaches.

Using closed-circuit television, video footage and news photographs, police have vowed to make more arrests following the weekend violence, possibly including neo-Nazis who used emails and pamphlet drops to encourage anti-Lebanese attacks.

New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma was yesterday meeting community leaders in a bid to defuse the crisis.

Armed units were last night patrolling Cronulla and surrounding beaches in Sydney's south, and further north at Maroubra, where about 50 Middle Eastern men smashed cars with baseball bats and battled local surfers in an apparent revenge raid.

Police have already arrested several Lebanese men in connection with the assault last week on lifesavers at Cronulla that sparked what Police Commissioner Ken Moroney described as the worst violence he had seen in his 40-year career.

In terrifying scenes, drunken mobs indiscriminately attacked people they considered to be Lebanese, using bottles and clubs as well as fists.

Police pulled victims from the midst of bashings on beaches, streets and trains, using capsicum spray and batons to keep mobs at bay.

Furious mobs attacked a Muslim woman and pulled off her headscarf as she fled, and turned on an ambulance crew and their vehicle when they arrived to help victims.

The violence shocked Australians and shamed the nation with widespread coverage of the riots and reports of underlying racism around the world - especially Asia, where memories of the White Australia policy remain strong.

Prime Minister John Howard described the mob bashings as sickening, but denied Australians were racist.

"Attacking people on the basis of their race, their appearance, their ethnicity, is totally unacceptable and should be repudiated by all Australians irrespective of their own background and their politics."