40 Police Hurt in Aborigine Rioting

Rioters in an Aboriginal neighborhood of Sydney set fire to a train station and pelted police with gasoline bombs and bricks, injuring 40 officers in a nine-hour street battle sparked by allegations that police chased a teenager to his death.

Hundreds of police doused the rioters using hoses during the fighting, which stretched into Monday morning.

The hospitalized officers mostly suffered broken bones, and one was knocked unconscious by a flying brick. All but one had been released by Monday afternoon. There was no immediate word on any injuries to rioters.

Four people were arrested and charged with involvement in the fighting.

The mother of 17-year-old Thomas Hickey, an Aborigine, said her son died Sunday when he fell from his bicycle and was impaled on a fence while police were chasing him in the Redfern neighborhood.

“It’s got to stop, the way they treat our kids,” Gail Hickey said. “They treat our kids like dogs.... They manhandle them.”

Police denied that they were chasing the teenager.

New South Wales state Premier Bob Carr ordered an investigation into the cause of the riot and said the state coroner would look into Hickey’s death and any possible police involvement.

On Monday night, a small group of Aborigines gathered at the scene of the riot under the eye of a handful of police, but there was no sign of trouble.

Aboriginal community leader Lyle Munro said anger had been simmering.

“You could interview every Aboriginal kid down there that comes from The Block, that comes from this area in Redfern in particular, and the majority will tell you ... that they’ve all been bashed by the police.”

“The Block” is a grid of run-down houses that is notorious for heroin dealing.