Police in Sydney will be given tough new powers to crack down on rioters who have rampaged through the city’s southern beachside suburbs for two nights, it was announced today.

Police formed a strike force today to track down the instigators of a day and night of racial riots that left more than 30 people injured in a string of Sydney beachside suburbs.

Racial tensions erupted today into running battles between police and thousands of white youths, many chanting racial slurs against ethnic Middle Easterners, at a beachside suburb in southern Sydney.

Text messages and e-mail alerts will form a key component of an evacuation plan for downtown Sydney in the event of a terrorist attack, the state leader said today.