Empty streets and busy beaches in Sydney as Delta lockdown divides Australia's largest city

Sydney struggles to contain its worst outbreak of the pandemic, the harsher restrictions and tougher policing in its most-affected neighbourhoods have stoked resentment.

Police, reinforced by the military, are out on the empty streets in western Sydney, making sure the hard lockdown is adhered to in some of Australia's most migrant-heavy neighbourhoods where Covid-19 infections are greatest. About three-quarters of New South Wales state's nearly 5,000 active cases come from nine Sydney local government districts, urban sprawl stretching from about 12 km (7.5 miles) southwest of the Sydney Harbour Bridge to the Blue Mountains foothills.