German police have arrested dozens of people after violent clashes at a march by more than 2,000 right-wing extremists in the Baltic port city of Rostock.

BBC World TV reports on the rioting

Supporters of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany - most of them young skinheads - marched through an eastern suburb of the city in former East Germany, banging drums and chanting "German Jobs for Germans First".

About 5,000 police from across Germany were deployed in an attempt to prevent clashes between the marchers and a similar number of left-wing opponents.

Those detained on both sides face violence and public order charges, and some of the far right activists were charged with displaying banned Nazi symbols.

More than 200 weapons were also seized.

March ban overturned

The city authorities attempted to ban the march but the ban was overturned when the organisers agreed not to march near a building formerly used to house many Vietnamese which had been set on fire in 1992.

In May a National Democratic Party election rally in another east German city, Leipzig, descended into violence as party supporters fought with left-wing protestors who disrupted the rally.

Leipzig authorities also tried to ban that rally, but were overruled by a higher court.

A similar march in Rostock six years ago sparked five days of rioting.