Four men were arrested and up to 100 mourners were moved on from a Muslim funeral in Sydney's west that breached lockdown restrictions on how many people could attend.
The funeral on Wednesday at Rookwood Cemetery coincided with two other burials in the same part of the facility, with police responding to reports 80 to 100 people had gathered to pay their respects.
Under Sydney's current lockdown laws, only 10 people are permitted at a funeral, whether indoors or outdoors. Additionally, the attendees can only be close family members of the deceased, such as a spouse, partner, parent, child or sibling.
It's understood a number of mourners stayed in parked cars so they could watch the burials from afar.
Police then arrived in 10 vehicles and knocked on car windows, asking mourners to leave, witnesses told The Guardian.
Mourners said police arrived in 10 vehicles and quickly began asking people to move on, including some mourners watching the funeral from parked cars
Sydney's Rookwood Cemetery, where up to 100 mourners at a Muslim funeral were dispersed by NSW Police on Wednesday
One mourner, Anwar Elahmad, told the ABC one of those being buried as his wife's uncle, who had contracted Covid-19 six weeks ago. He said he approached officers to allow the burial to go ahead.
'I informed him … that's it's our religious obligation to give our dead a speedy burial, and I pleaded him to use his discretion and allow the burial to go ahead,' Mr Elahmad said.
'My mother-in-law, the sister of the deceased, was standing in the car park … she was also asked to leave, not even allowed to sit in our car and watch from the car and threatened with being arrested.'
Mr
