Three nights of running riots

CANBERRA - The suburb of Macquarie Fields, on the southwestern fringe of Sydney, remained tense late yesterday as police prepared for further violence after three nights of rioting.

Police and community negotiators spent much of the day trying to cool tempers among locals, who had pelted about 100 police officers with Molotov cocktails, rocks and bricks after two teenagers died when the stolen car in which they were travelling crashed after a brief pursuit.

The scenes were reminiscent of the anger that erupted in the inner-city Aboriginal enclave of Redfern last year when teenager Thomas "TJ" Hickey was impaled on an iron fence after fleeing police, as fury boiled over into death threats and organised attacks.

Police were yesterday examining videotapes of the violence to identify the ringleaders.

A coronial inquest into the deaths and the violence has already been ordered by New South Wales Premier Bob Carr, who has vowed to clamp down on street violence and threats and assaults on police.

"There's going to be identification and arresting of people and that in the end is the answer to behaviour that simply cannot be tolerated," he said.

Dozens of heavily armed police wearing flak jackets and helmets yesterday stormed a house in Macquarie Fields armed with a search and arrest warrant.

Four men were arrested for rioting, hindering police and offensive behaviour, and a woman was arrested for assaulting police.

As in Redfern, Macquarie Fields was a volcano waiting to erupt. Glenquarrie Estate, the centre of the violence, was built 30 years ago as low-income housing and is now plagued by unemployment and crime.

"That part of the broader community is dysfunctional," Campbelltown Mayor Brenton Banfield told ABC radio. "That's how I'd describe it. The most disadvantaged people live there and they've become dysfunctional communities.

"That was an estate that was developed probably 30 years ago by the Department of Housing and during that time the condition of houses has deteriorated. Those houses are now old and either in need of demolition or renewal."

About 11pm on Friday night Dyllan Rayward, 17, and Matthew Robertson, 19, were passengers in a stolen Holden Commodore driven by a third man, who police say they know but have not yet apprehended.

The car was identified and chased by police officers in an unmarked vehicle, and shortly afterwards hit a tree in Eucalyptus Drive. Rayward and Robertson were killed, but the driver escaped.

Anger immediately boiled over as about 50 young men gathered, abused police and ambulance workers and pelted them with rocks as they tried to remove the bodies.

Locals told reporters their fury had been building over a long period because of what they said was police persecution of the neighbourhood.

One resident, Paul Middleton, told the Sydney Morning Herald: "All the cops around here are trigger-happy and lead-footed."

Another, Thomas Kelly, added: "We put up with this shit from the coppers all the time. They come around to our houses and harass us. They have no respect for our families or our friends."

Locals said the two teenagers died because the police tried to force their car off the road, a claim angrily denied on the Nine Network's Today show by Superintendent John Sweeney.

"There is not one scratch on the police car," he said. "To shunt a vehicle at speed it would have to show some clear evidence of damage."

Anger continued to mount over the weekend, with death threats to four police officers and graffiti saying "Cops kill kids" and warning "Police will die".

Violence erupted again on Saturday night and, despite efforts by police to lessen tensions and close down the trouble a full-scale riot involving as many as 150 people broke out on Sunday night.

Rioters hurled Molotov cocktails, rocks and bricks, breaking one officer's hand. One of four men arrested during the violence was bitten by a police dog.

Riot police had last night formed a cordon on Eucalyptus Drive.

- additional reporting AAP