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Rioters burn Palm Island police station to the ground
Friday, 26 November 2004
11:17:05 PM
PALM ISLAND, QLD, Nov 26: The police station on Queensland's Palm Island has been burnt to the ground and other buildings damaged during a riot by up to 300 residents angry over a death in custody.
Up to 50 armed police reinforcements were today being flown to the Aboriginal settlement after hundreds of angry residents stormed the police station and adjoining courthouse early this afternoon, setting fire to the buildings with a petrol bomb.
Residents were believed to have blocked the airstrip with cars to stop police reinforcements being flown from nearby Townsville.
Palm Island resident Nicky Bull said the situation was worse than during this year's Redfern riots in Sydney.
"There's smoke everywhere, the police station's just about burnt to the ground as it is, as well as the residence where the police live," she told ABC radio.
"The atmosphere is just anger amongst the residents here but it's very, very freaky here at the moment because of a lot of those people are not used to seeing our people like this."
The riot follows the release of a post-mortem examination of a Cameron Doomadgee, 36, who died in custody last Friday.
The autopsy found the man had four broken ribs and died from a punctured lung.
Another resident, Nicky Willis, said she heard unconfirmed reports two police officers had beaten up and one had a broken jaw.
"The atmosphere over here at the moment is one that's full of anger because of what's come out of the coroner's report," she told ABC radio.
"It's one that's full of fear as well because there are a lot of good people that live on this land.
"There's a lot of elders that live here ... and they are living in fear."
The Palm Island hospital has been locked down.
Palm Island has had a troubled history, earning the dubious title of the most violent place on Earth outside a combat zone in the 1998 Guinness Book of Records. - AAP
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