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An emergency has been declared after more than 300 people staged an overnight riot in a far north Queensland community, police say.
Police declared an emergency zone within a two kilometre radius of the remote Aboriginal community of Aurukun - a former church mission station.
Although police are not certain what sparked the violence they suspect it was caused by the arrest of a 22-year-old man for assault earlier that day. The man fell ill while in police custody and had to be flown to hospital.
The crowd smashed up two police cars and the glass doors and windows of the police station as rioters tried to gain entry.
They also ransacked a local shop and seriously damaged a tavern.
"The crowds rioted and both police vehicles were extensively damaged and the Aurukun police station was also damaged when the crowd attempted to gain entry," police spokesman Sergeant Kim McCoomb told journalists.
"We're not quite sure of the full extent of that damage, but there has been quite a substantial amount of damage and it was quite an unsettling incident," Aurukun council Chief Executive Officer Gary Kleidon told local radio.
Police believe no-one was injured.
The situation now appears under control as most people have gone home and the streets are reported to be quiet, police said.
They said the trouble started when two local families started fighting in the streets following the 22-year-old's arrest.
The situation worsened when the man was taken from the watchhouse to the local clinic for treatment.
A large crowd formed at the clinic and threatened violence, which broke out at around 9.20pm.
Extra police are being drafted in to support the local officers.
The declaration of an emergency situation granted police extra powers to deal with rioters, a police spokeswoman said.
"It gives police the power to commandeer resources, such as a car or a truck, and exclude people from an area," she said.
"It just allows them a little more power to get a situation under control."
The emergency situation was still in place, she said.
Many of Australia's 460,000 Aborigines live in remote outback communities with poor access to jobs, good housing, health services and education.
Aborigines account for just 2.3 per cent of Australia's 20 million population, but suffer high rates of domestic violence and alcohol abuse.
Tensions have been high in Queensland following a prosecutor's decision last month not to charge a police officer blamed for the death in custody of an Aboriginal man on Palm Island, near Townsville.
Queensland's government has been forced to look outside the state for an independent judge to review a decision by the state's top prosecutor not to lay charges against Palm Island police Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley.
Last September deputy state coroner Christine Clements found Hurley struck Mulrunji Doomadgee, 36, and caused fatal injuries while Doomadgee was locked up in November 2004.
- AAP / REUTERS
