SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — Vandals threw homemade petrol bombs at a Chinese restaurant in Sydney, police said Wednesday, a day after a spate of suspected gang-related attacks on restaurants in the city’s Chinatown.
Superintendent John Sweeney said no one was injured in the attack on the restaurant in Crows Nest, on the north shore of Sydney Harbor. It happened in the early hours of Wednesday morning after the eatery had closed.
Four people were seen fleeing the scene after throwing three homemade petrol bombs at the front windows of the restaurant, starting a fire that caused some external damage, he said.
“Two of the bottles exploded on impact when thrown against the windows, however the windows did not break,” Sweeney said.
The fire was put out by two cleaners from a nearby building.
Sweeney said police were investigating whether there was a link between the attack and four others in Chinatown on Monday.
Wielding axes and mallets, eight men smashed fish tanks and wrecked furniture at four restaurants in the Chinatown precinct, a bustling grid of narrow streets on the edge of downtown Sydney.
New South Wales state lawmaker Dr. Peter Wong, a prominent member of Sydney’s Chinese community, blamed the violence on a campaign of intimidation and extortion by Asian criminal gangs.
