The hordes came with guns and iron bars

By Richard Macey
December 13, 2005 - 1:10AM

They arrived with guns and iron bars to the Cronulla 7-Eleven. It was 10.45pm and the manager, Hearmohan Singh, was terrified.

"I saw about 100 cars," Mr Singh told the Herald. "They were going towards the beach."

To his horror, many of the cars came to a halt outside. "At least 50 to 60 boys started coming towards the store," he said. "They had guns and iron bars. I see two with the guns. I was scared, man. I ran into the store and locked it.

"They had their faces masked and were running towards the store. I was really scared."

Mr Singh was certain they were about to attack his store when, just as suddenly, police arrived. "The police were everywhere. At least 10 police cars were outside the store ... they came with the dog squad."

He said as soon as the police pulled up the young men, aged from about 16 to 25, fled back to their cars and drove off. A customer told him that he had been run over by one of the mob's cars. "He was injured, but not badly ... he was just crossing the road."

Mr Singh said he was a Sikh and had been abused in the past by people who mistook him for a Arab because of his beard.

"The police have saved Cronulla from hundreds of thousands of dollars damage," he said.

At Brighton-le-Sands, a resident, Craig Donaldson, said: "I moved my car off the street and then immediately after that maybe one or two carloads arrived. They were milling around the service station. One person set off a fire extinguisher. Then half a dozen more cars arrived and they were throwing rocks at apartments along Bruce Street and smashing cars. Then they all got in and left within five minutes and then after that the police arrived."

The scene was repeated in hit-and-run raids on several southern suburbs.
