At least seven people were stabbed after neo-Nazis and counterdemonstrators clashed at a rally at the state Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Sunday, the Los Angeles Times reports.
According to the report, five people, some of whom were critically injured, were taken to local hospitals, the Sacramento Fire Department's public information officer, Chris Harvey, told the Times. Several others suffered cuts, scrapes and bruises but were not taken in for treatment.
"It was quite a bit of a melee," Harvey said, adding that he did not know which groups the injured were part of.
The incident started with a rally held by the Traditionalist Worker Party, a white nationalist group, protesting "against globalization and in defense of the right to free expression," the Times reports. However, the group was outnumbered by counterprotesters who came bearing signs reading "Nazi scum."
A rally organizer, who wasn't at the Capitol at the time, said on a web live stream that one member of his group was stabbed and taken to the hospital, the Times reports.
“They got one of us, but we got six of them,” he said.
Capitol staff were sheltered on the building's basement level, and the building was placed under lockdown. A window on the Capitol's southern ground level was shattered by protesters.
"They came ready to fight," Assemblyman Jim Cooper, a Democrat, told the Times, noting that protesters were seen carrying wooden batons and wearing plastic shields.
According to ABC10, the Traditionalist Worker Party had a permit to hold its rally at the Capitol. The rally ended up being canceled after the incident.
Read more at the Los Angeles Times and ABC10.