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

Attackers set fire to a train station at the height of overnight rioting that stretched into yesterday morning 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 after he fell from his bicycle and was impaled on a fence while being chased by police.

"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 they were chasing the teen.

Hundreds of police in full riot gear doused the rioters with high-pressure water hoses during the fighting.

The hospitalized police officers mostly suffered broken bones while one was knocked out after being hit by a flying brick. All but one had been released by yesterday afternoon. There was no immediate word on injuries to rioters.

Four alleged rioters were arrested and charged with involvement in the fighting. Assistant commissioner Bob Waites said police had identified other rioters and expect to make more arrests in coming days.

Yesterday evening, a small group of Aborigines watched by a handful of police officers was gathered at the scene of the riot but there was no sign of trouble.

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

In the rioting, about 100 attackers set fire to Redfern railway station, torched a car and smashed windows. "They burnt out one vehicle and they in fact were throwing Molotov cocktails both at police and at Redfern railway station during the course of the riot," Waites said.

Television images showed young men surrounding a police patrol car and slamming bricks into it from close range. It was not clear if there were officers in the car at the time.

(China Daily 02/17/2004 page8)