STOCKHOLM - Five people were arrested and two were injured in Stockholm on Saturday in clashes between police and anti-fascists at a rally by Swedish neo-Nazis, police said.

An AFP photographer said thousands of anti-fascists gathered in central Stockholm to protest against a rally being held by the Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR).

Police placed a protective cordon around the NMR rally, which numbered hundreds of people, the photographer said.

Police said they made five arrests among anti-fascists who tried to break through police lines before the demonstration eventually dispersed in the afternoon.

Spokesman Lars Bystroem told TT news agency that a policeman was hit by a demonstrator, and a second individual was injured in circumstances that were unclear.

The NMR, set up in 1997, promotes an openly racist and anti-Semitic doctrine, and press commentators had questioned the wisdom of authorizing Saturday's rally, given the likelihood of violence.