Neo-Nazis outnumbered by counter-demonstrators at Dresden rally

Hundreds of neo-Nazis gathered in the eastern German city of Dresden Saturday but they were opposed by thousands of counter-demonstrators seeking to block an annual march.

Police said some 1,300 far-right supporters had gathered by mid-afternoon, far fewer than the 6,500 expected, to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the allied bombing which destroyed the historic city towards the end of World War II.

Opponents of the rally — a collection of politicians, artists and unionists forming the "Dresden without Nazis" alliance — had called on the city’s residents to stage a peaceful counter-protest and block the demonstration.

"Some 10,000 people have succeeded in blocking access to the rallying point," alliance spokesman Stefan Thiele told AFP.

"We have for the first time succeeded in preventing the biggest neo-Nazi march in Europe," Lena Roth, of the Dresden Without Nazis alliance, said. [...]

Opponents of the rally had called on the city's residents to stage a peaceful counter-protest and block the demonstration.

City authorities said a "human chain" of 15,000 people had formed on the other side of the Elbe river to prevent the march.

A city hall spokesman said the rally, called by Mayor Helma Orosz, was "a symbolic action" to show Dresden was "a city open to the world, opposed to violence and xenophobia".