Sydney police seize weapons

POLICE seized petrol bombs, knives and iron bars around Sydney beaches yesterday, along with mobile phones used to spread racist messages, in a huge security operation to prevent fresh inter-communal violence.

Police put an extra 500 police on the beaches of Australia’s biggest city, taking the total cordon to about 2,000.

Officers patrolled on horseback and set up checkpoints around some of Sydney’s favourite summer playgrounds, including Bondi Beach, where a peaceful holiday mood was edged by fears of fresh violence between whites and ethnic Lebanese. They screened cars at dozens of roadblocks, seizing knives, clubs spiked with nails, steel pikes, knuckle-dusters and bottles of petrol.