Police in Sweden have arrested hundreds of neo-Nazis and leftist counter-demonstrators. Some 470 activists from extreme right- and left-wing groups were taken into custody at demonstrations on Saturday in Stockholm, the Swedish news agency TT reported. Fifteen of them were jailed while the others were later released, officials said. Tensions were especially high at the annual event commemorating the death in 2000 of a teenage neo-Nazi because of fire-bombing attacks aimed at leftists in nearby Hogdalen last month. "It was a successful day from a police perspective," said Stockholm police official Anders Olsson.
Meanwhile, neo-Nazis and left-wing protestors also clashed in the German capital Berlin. Police had to use water cannons and detained at least 70 people as a result of street clashes between some 700 neo-Nazis and hundreds of counter-demonstrators in Berlin's Lichtenberg districts, widely regarded as a bastion of far-right activists. Protesters against the neo-Nazis staged several sit-ins along the route of the march and pelted stones at the far-right demonstrators who reacted by throwing bottles. At least two police officers were slightly injured during the protests. Around 1,600 policemen were deployed to prevent clashes between neo- Nazi marchers and counter-demonstrators.
Germany has repeatedly been the scene of violent encounters between far right supporters and anti-fascist demonstrators. The number of German neo-Nazis has continued to rise over the past year, according to official statistics.
