Violence and ugly racist incidents marred the Australia Day celebrations across the country as groups of young people went on rampage targetting immigrants and Asians, including a Sikh taxi driver.
Groups of youths, during the festivities on Monday, jumped upon the cars echoing racist comments to the terrified passengers within and were heard passing lewd comments on girls, according to The Daily telegraph newspaper.
In Sydney, hundreds of youths draped in 'Aussie pride' livery wore objectionable slogans as they paraded down the seafront threatening by-passers and smashing car windows and vandalising shops of non-white shopkeepers.
The report said that the group attacked a taxi driven by a Sikh and assaulted an Asian shopkeeper. One 18-year-old Asian woman was also injured when the gang smashed her car's window, causing several cuts on her body.
The police have arrested several hooligans across the country for taking on the law and order into their hands.
Several incidents of wild brawls and vandalism were also reported on Monday from Gold coast and New South Wales. Local police and riot squad were called in to control the crowd made up of a core group of about 80 drunk teenagers from out of the town.
A 16-year-old boy was charged with assaulting police, while two other 16-year-olds were cautioned for offensive behaviour. One cautioned for jumping into the water in front of the ferry.
Police was quoted on Tuesday as saying that they have arrested 92 people in total and charged them with 113 offences during Australia Day celebrations in Sydney.
Meanwhile, a Darwin-based shop has been lashed out for selling shirts emblazoned with "racist" messages during the Australia Day celebrations. The manager of the store was unavailable for comments.
