Image: Yle

A public demonstration by the Finnish Resistance Movement (Kansallinen Vastarinta), which describes itself as national socialist, ended in fighting on Saturday.

Local police say the extreme right group’s protest began peacefully and that approximately 40 people were in attendance. As the event proceeded, however, the protesters began to assault bystanders and aggressively prevent the police from performing their duty. Some of the aggressors continued their violent behaviour within the premises of the nearby Sokos department store.

The situation was quickly brought under control, say the police, and 30 people were apprehended. Several will be charged with violent rioting and assault.

The Finnish Resistance Movement says it is part of the Nordic Resistance Movement led by the Swedish neo-Nazi Klas Lund. Three of the Finnish group's members were involved in a 2013 scuffle at the Jyväskylä Library, when one person was stabbed.

Finns Party MP Olli Immonen, who recently came under fire for posting an inflammatory Facebook status update calling for a “fight until the end” against the “nightmare called multiculturalism”, posed in June for a photograph with members of the Finnish Resistance Movement in Porvoo. He posted the photo on his Facebook page after the event.