SYDNEY, Dec 13 (Reuters) - A second night of unrest in Australia's biggest city Sydney left seven people injured and dozens of cars damaged in apparent reprisal for racial violence on a city beach at the weekend, police said on Tuesday. Gangs of youths, mainly Muslim and from Middle East backgrounds, attacked several people with baseball bats, vandalised cars and had running skirmishes with police, they said. At one beach, Maroubra, police said they found 30 Molotov cocktails and crates of rocks stockpiled on rooftops along the beach's main road. "Eleven men were arrested and seven people, including a police officer, were injured in a second night of unrest," police said on Tuesday. Racial violence erupted at Sydney's Cronulla Beach on Sunday when some 5,000 people, some yelling racist chants, attacked youths of Middle Eastern background. Drunk and angry mobs of youths, some wrapped in Australian flags, said they were defending their beach after lifesavers were attacked there last week. They believe the attackers were of Lebanese background. Police said white supremacists had incited the Cronulla crowd to violence. Sydney's Lebanese youths struck back on Sunday night, smashing cars, assaulting people and fighting police in several different suburbs.
Gangs of youths, mainly Muslim and from Middle East backgrounds, attacked several people with baseball bats, vandalised cars and had running skirmishes with police, they said.
At one beach, Maroubra, police said they found 30 Molotov cocktails and crates of rocks stockpiled on rooftops along the beach's main road.
"Eleven men were arrested and seven people, including a police officer, were injured in a second night of unrest," police said on Tuesday.
Racial violence erupted at Sydney's Cronulla Beach on Sunday when some 5,000 people, some yelling racist chants, attacked youths of Middle Eastern background.
Drunk and angry mobs of youths, some wrapped in Australian flags, said they were defending their beach after lifesavers were attacked there last week. They believe the attackers were of Lebanese background.
Police said white supremacists had incited the Cronulla crowd to violence.
Sydney's Lebanese youths struck back on Sunday night, smashing cars, assaulting people and fighting police in several different suburbs.
Australia was last night in the grip of its worst race clashes since independence, with youths battering cars and shattering shop windows as violence spread through Sydney's suburbs for a second day. The attacks came in retaliation for Sunday's violence, in which 5,000 people rampaged across Cronulla beach chanting racist slogans, leaving more than 40 police officers injured. Members of the crowd had wrapped themselves in the Australian flag and chanted: "No more Lebs [Lebanese]", attacking men and women of Middle Eastern appearance. Several victims were evacuated in police vans. Last night police made several arrests after more than 50 carloads of Middle Eastern men armed with baseball bats sought revenge in the southern Sydney suburb of Cronulla. More than 500 mainly Muslim men also gathered outside a mosque at Lakemba, in the city's south-west, after rumours that surf gangs were planning to attack the building. They later dispersed, throwing rocks and flares at police protecting the building. Television images of the fighting shocked Australians, whose pride in their country's tolerance was shaken by the level of popular support for Pauline Hanson's anti-immigration One Nation party in the late 90s. More recently, the prime minister, John Howard, won the 2001 election on a hardline anti-immigration platform.
The attacks came in retaliation for Sunday's violence, in which 5,000 people rampaged across Cronulla beach chanting racist slogans, leaving more than 40 police officers injured. Members of the crowd had wrapped themselves in the Australian flag and chanted: "No more Lebs [Lebanese]", attacking men and women of Middle Eastern appearance. Several victims were evacuated in police vans.
Last night police made several arrests after more than 50 carloads of Middle Eastern men armed with baseball bats sought revenge in the southern Sydney suburb of Cronulla.
More than 500 mainly Muslim men also gathered outside a mosque at Lakemba, in the city's south-west, after rumours that surf gangs were planning to attack the building. They later dispersed, throwing rocks and flares at police protecting the building.
Television images of the fighting shocked Australians, whose pride in their country's tolerance was shaken by the level of popular support for Pauline Hanson's anti-immigration One Nation party in the late 90s. More recently, the prime minister, John Howard, won the 2001 election on a hardline anti-immigration platform.
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