Sydney on edge over fears of more violence

Mounted police pass sunbathers on a largely deserted North Cronulla beach. Picture / Reuters

Never has going to the beach in Australia been more difficult. Or intimidating.

At North Cronulla, scene of attacks by white locals against people of Middle Eastern appearance a week ago, only about 100 souls braved threats of more violence yesterday to sunbathe or swim.

Normally there would be several thousand beachgoers on a warm summer weekend, but threats received by police that people armed with baseball bats, sticks and poles could attack kept many people away.

Up to 2000 police officers patrolled streets yesterday, using tough new laws passed by the NSW parliament last week to crack down on the troublemakers.

Warnings of new violence follow a race riot last Sunday in Cronulla, south Sydney, retaliatory "smash and bash" attacks elsewhere around the city earlier last week, and a wave of text messages and emails urging further race-based attacks.

NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney yesterday urged people to stay away from beaches in Sydney, Wollongong, Newcastle and the Central Coast.

On Friday night the new police strike force set up to crack down on race-related violence arrested 19 people as part of Operation Seta.

Police said 23 charges were laid for drink driving, traffic and drug offences and outstanding warrants. The total number of arrests under the operation now stands at 63, with 101 charges laid.

Police have also seized a vehicle at Matraville, in Sydney's south - the first car taken under the new powers handed to police. Inside they found swords and a dagger.

Three men, all aged under 19, were due to appear in court yesterday charged over a violent incident on a train at Cronulla last Sunday, when up to 5000 people gathered along the beachfront where a number of people of Middle Eastern appearance were attacked. All three have been charged with riot and affray and were refused bail.

Beach-goers yesterday faced lengthy traffic delays as police checked every car travelling into Cronulla. Helicopters drowned out the sound of the surf, police boats bobbed offshore and police horses moved in and around sunbathers on the beaches at Cronulla and elsewhere around Sydney.

"It's a bit scary, there's no one here," Ann Chamberlin, a local mother of teenagers, said at North Cronulla.

Despite warnings that the real trouble would happen today - when Lebanese gangs might try to retaliate for being attacked by drunken groups of white men a week earlier - local mayor Kevin Schreiber urged the public to ignore the warnings and support struggling local businesses. "Some of the local retailers face ruin," said Schreiber. "These people have been affected by something that is totally out of the ordinary. I've never seen anything like it before."

Chef Nathan Allouche said business at his beachfront restaurant had fallen more than 50 per cent since Sunday's riots.

"Monday and Tuesday, the phones didn't stop ringing with cancellations," Allouche said. "It's unbelievable."

Chamberlin said she agreed with the mayor that local businesses needed support. "There's a risk, we know that much," she said.

"But we've got to get on with our lives."

The whites who rioted last Sunday reportedly did so in retaliation following an attack by Lebanese gang members on two beach lifeguards the previous weekend.

Yesterday, on a beach usually thronging with swimmers, officials from the local surf club held a news conference to announce they would try to recruit some Lebanese or other Middle Eastern lifesavers in an effort to reach out to minority groups.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY