A brawl erupted between BNP members and anti-fascists in Southend.
Police made two arrests after the BNP members arranged a meeting at the Golden Lion Hotel in Victoria Avenue, Southend, last night.
Members of anti-fascist group, Southend Unites Against Fascism, learned of the meeting and went to the hotel to demonstrate against the meeting taking place.
They believed BNP leader Nick Griffin would be making an appearance.
A spokesman for the anti-fascists group said: "We went there to attempt to prevent the meeting from taking place and they became violent. There was a brawl it spilled out onto the intersection and traffic came to a standstill as they brawled in the road."
Police were called to the scene at 7.30pm and the incident took almost an hour to contain. Two men were arrested but police were unable to say whether anyone had been charged today.
Published Friday July 2, 2004
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