Aborigine teen's death sparks ghetto riots

RIOTERS in an Aboriginal ghetto of Sydney pelted police with petrol bombs and bricks, leaving 40 officers injured, after a nine-hour street battle sparked by allegations that police chased a local teenager to his death.

Attackers set fire to a railway station at the height of overnight rioting in the Redfern neighbourhood of Australia's most populous city, following the death of 17-year-old Aborigine Thomas Hickey.

Hickey's mother claimed her son died on Sunday when he fell from his bicycle and was impaled on a fence while being chased by police. Police denied they were chasing the teenager.