Indian set on fire in latest Australia attack

Police stressed there was no evidence of a racial motive after four men poured an unidentified fluid on the 29-year-old and set him alight in a suburb of the city, leaving him with 15 percent burns.

It follows the stabbing murder of another Indian in the city last weekend, which prompted a Delhi newspaper to run a cartoon likening Australian police to the Ku Klux Klan, and in turn an angry reaction by Australian officials.

In the latest incident, the victim was parking his car in a side street after dinner with friends when he was attacked in the early hours of Saturday. His condition was described as stable.

"I believe there's no reason at this stage to consider this in any way racially motivated," detective sergeant Neil Smyth told reporters.

"The circumstances of parking a car randomly on a side street and just some people approaching him are a bit strange and it's highly unlikely, therefore, to be a targeted attack on any individual."