Indian beaten up in Sydney; police mum on attack

A 28-year-old Indian man living in Australia for more than a decade today claimed that he was beaten up by a group of locals on a beach in Sydney.

The man, who refused to be named apparently due to safety reasons, said that he was kicked and punched by the group near Coogee beach yesterday.

He said he had been living in Australia for the past 11 years, and had never experienced such a thing before.

Police arrived 40 minutes after the incident and caught one person, he said.

While the man did not receive any external wounds, he said he was having severe pain in his neck, back and head. He did not give any other detail.

However, police have not issued any statement on the attack.

Meanwhile, foreign minister Stephen Smith said that India and Australia shared an "excellent relationship", and did not want the issue of attacks on Indians, mostly students, here to disturb the ties.

Smith said he rang up his Indian counterpart SM Krishna yesterday after returning from holidays to brief him about the investigations.

"We both agreed this was an issue we did not want to disturb or get in the way of what the external affairs minister (Krishna) described as an excellent relationship," he was quoted as saying by AAP today.