Australian police deployed their riot squad early Sunday when a brawl involving bikers erupted at a Sydney casino, in the latest skirmish in a bitter war between rival gangs. Police said up to 20 people, both men and women, used chairs and glasses as weapons when the fight broke out in the casino at about 1:30am.
The brawl spilled out onto the street, and the riot squad was called in to bring the fracas under control, New South Wales police said. Police arrested 10 men and one woman, most of whom were allegedly linked to the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang, and charged three of them with affray.
The incident was the latest in a wave of biker violence that boiled over at Sydney airport last month when the brother of a Hells Angel was bludgeoned to death by rival gang members as horrified passengers looked on. The airport death, followed by reprisal shootings and bomb threats, brought long-simmering tensions between biker gangs into the public arena.
Sydneys Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported the biker war had also spread to the prison system, with five prison guards receiving minor injuries trying to contain a brawl between rival gang members at a Sydney jail Friday. Experts say the biker violence stems from turf wars over drug distribution, particularly methamphetamine or "ice".
Australian authorities have been so alarmed by the escalating violence that some states have pushed through anti-terror style legislation allowing police to have biker gangs declared illegal.