Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Anti-Semitic group marches in Sweden

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Police said at least 50 people were detained Saturday during a right-wing demonstrat­ion in Sweden’s second-largest city that left one police officer and several others injured.

The rally by the Nordic Resistance Movement in Goteborg, 248 miles southwest of Stockholm, featured an estimated 600 people marching in formation in all-black outfits. Some wore helmets and held shields, while others hoisted the movement’s green-andwhite flags.

Police had posted fliers before the event warning people not to act in a way reminiscen­t of German Nazis’ demonstrat­ions in the 1930s and 1940s.

The Nordic Resistance Movement, which promotes an openly anti-Semitic doctrine, originally sought to pass near a downtown synagogue during the march, which coincided with Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day of the year. But Swedish courts intervened and shortened the route to less than a mile. The rally’s ending time also was shortened to avoid clashing with a nearby soccer game.

Counterdem­onstrators threw fireworks and attempted several times to break police lines, allegedly to confront Nordic Resistance Movement members, who also tried to get past riot police. Several were detained on suspicion of rioting, police said.

“Stones, bottles and sticks were also thrown at us,” police spokesman Hans Lippens said.

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