Story highlights Hundreds of counterprotesters outnumbered some 50 Klan supporters, authorities said

Even more people attended "unity events" organized by the city and the University of Virginia

(CNN) A Ku Klux Klan rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, drew about 50 Klan members and supporters Saturday -- and several hundred counterprotesters, authorities said.

Members of the North Carolina-based Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan -- some wearing Klan robes and carrying Confederate flags -- arrived in midday to protest the city's plan to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a park, one of several steps the city is taking to reduce its number of Confederate monuments.

Police break up a confrontation.

Some Klansmen had said they would carry loaded firearms -- allowable under Virginia's open-carry law.

They were confronted by shouting counterprotesters as tensions ratcheted up and a large group of law enforcement officers, including members of the state police, set up police lines.

Police escorted the Klansmen through the shouting crowds to reach their designated spot for a demonstration: Justice Park, which until recently had been named after Confederate hero Gen. Stonewall Jackson.