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Australian Police to Hunt Down Rally Protesters

The Rally Australia organizers were forced to cancel the 6th stage of the event on Friday, after a group of protesters started to throw rocks at the WRC cars on the course. After failing to prevent the Australian event from taking place on environmental grounds in court, the protesters decided to take the matter into their own hands and endangered the safety of the WRC field during SS6.

As the second running of the CTEK East stage – scheduled as the SS11 – never took place on Friday, the New South Wales police vowed to take severe actions against the persons responsible for the rock-throwing incident. Not only the guilty ones will face drastic measures – in accordance with the state law – but others who will do the same in the upcoming 2 days of the event will also be hunt down by the police.

When we were coming down to stage six, there were about 50 of them shouting at us and telling us to go home. It's not nice and it is pretty intimidating. It's in the back of your mind that these people don't want us here and they might be prepared to go a bit further to try and get rid of us. It's tough. Maybe it's not the most sensible decision to bring us to this part of the world, but that wasn't our decision,” admitted Stobart's Matthew Wilson.

Ford's Mikko Hirvonen was the first driver to dive into the SS6 on Friday, as he stopped at the first radio communication point after his car was hit by rocks. Soon after that, all action was cancelled for the CTEK East region.

The protesters involved in this rock throwing incident have shown total disregard for the safety of the competitors and officials involved in today's stage of the event. Their behaviour had the potential to seriously injure or kill somebody,” added Superintendent Michael Kenny, according to British magazine Autosport.

I will make no apology for coming down hard on anybody considering radical action. Protesters who abide by the law have nothing to fear, however any action that is unlawful will not be tolerated nor will any action which endangers people's safety. Police will use the full force of the law to ensure the safety of everyone involved in this event,” added Kenny.

The New South Wales police have already set up Operation Palisade to hunt down the group of protesters.
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