At least 10 people have been injured as a result of violence between a white supremacist group and counter-protesters in Sacramento, California, officials say.
Sacramento Fire Department spokesman Chris Harvey said at least seven of the injured had sustained stab wounds - two of them critical- while nine people were hospitalized.
The clash erupted when a planned march of neo-Nazi groups on the state capitol grounds was met by hundreds of protesters who denounced them as “Nazi scum.”
According to authorities and witnesses, the violence began almost immediately and lasted 20 minutes before it was ended by police.
The Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP) had planned the event and had a permit for the rally, police confirmed.
Describing itself as a “white nationalist” group, TWP said the event was scheduled to “protest against globalization and in defense of the right to free expression.”
According to local media, the rally was held in conjunction with other white supremacist groups such as Golden State Skinheads, Blood & Honor, National Socialist Movement and Ku Klux Klan."
Anti-fascist groups had in the past indicated time and again that they were preparing for a counter-protest to stop the "Nazi mega-rally."
Witness video showed several protesters kicking a purported KKK member while another Klansman used the pole’s tip of an American flag to stab another man.
Police said two more counter-protesters were also stabbed by KKK members.
Police also recovered a loaded handgun from the scene of the brawl but could not verify which side it belonged to.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, says the TWP came into existence in January 2015 as part of a right-wing extremist "umbrella group that aims to indoctrinate high school and college students into white nationalism."
The latest clashes came after another violent confrontation in Sacramento several months ago, when members of a KKK group got involved in a fight with rival protesters at an Anaheim park.