About 150 police officers in helicopters and on horses and foot chased bands of youths throughout the afternoon. Officers wearing gas masks fired tear gas canisters and flash-bang devices designed to stun suspects, only to see the groups reappear nearby and resume throwing rocks and bottles. A group pounded on a convenience store and overturned vehicles. A fire was set in a nearby bar. At least six people were arrested.

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - A crowd that gathered to protest against a neo-Nazi march in Toledo on Saturday turned violent, throwing baseball-sized rocks at police, vandalizing vehicles and stores and setting fire to a neighbourhood bar, authorities said.

The march was called off just before it was to begin at noon EDT and the mayor and a local minister tried to negotiate with the rioters. But their efforts produced little response and police prepared to forcibly remove a crowd of several hundred by mid-afternoon.

"This has a real potential for a lot of bloodshed," Police Chief Mike Navarre warned a large group of officers, part of the 150 deployed to provide security for the march.

Police in helicopters, cruisers, bicycles and on horses chased bands of youths throughout the afternoon. Officers wearing gas masks fired tear gas canisters and flash-bang devices designed to stun suspects, only to see the groups reappear nearby and resume throwing rocks and bottles. At least six people were arrested.

Navarre said officers had a report of a man shot in the area but they had not found a victim. No other injuries had been reported, Navarre said.

At least two dozen members of the National Socialist Movement, which calls itself "America's Nazi party," gathered at a city park just before noon and were to march under police protection. Organizers of the march said they were demonstrating against black gangs they said were harassing white residents in the neighbourhood.

Violence broke out about 400 metres away from the park along the planned 1.6-kilometre route. By mid-afternoon, Navarre said he believed all the members of the neo-Nazi group had left the city.

Thomas Frisch, 76, said a large group of men destroyed the exterior of a gas station next to his home.

"A whole big gang started to come in here. Next thing you know, they're jumping on the car."

"Then they overturned it. Then they started on the building, breaking windows, ripping the bars off," he said.

Keith White, a black resident, criticized city officials for initially allowing the march.

"They let them come here and expect this not to happen?" said White, 29.

A mere fourteen members of a National Socialist group had arranged a demonstration to take place in a park across from a small White enclave in the black sea that Toledo has become. According to Fox news, the protest was aimed at police and authorities for not doing enough to protect the community from non-White crime, specifically gang activity.

Counter-protesters described by Fox commentators as "socialist skinheads who oppose racism" became agitated and violent and had to be arrested a full half-hour before the demonstration was scheduled to begin. Police decided to cancel the protest and the National Socialists were escorted to their cars in a police van. This was all caught on video. Including aerial scenes of the "Nazis" being driven away.

Meanwhile, around 400 Black males between the ages of around 16 and 25 had gathered in three separate groups in various locations around the staging area. Many were obviously gang members, as they were wearing gang garb, flashing strange hand signals, and working in a semi-organized fashion (A fact later confirmed by Mayor Jack Ford who described the rioters as "gang members.") Again, this was all caught on video.

Although the demonstration had been cancelled, and the participants had either been arrested or escorted away, the blacks would not disperse. In fact, the blacks became more and more agitated.

What was now a mob began to hurl what Fox described as "baseball sized rocks" through the windows of neighborhood homes in a four square block area. The scene was almost unbelievable. Thousands of huge rocks pummeled the tidy homes of White, low-income people who apparently had the good sense to leave the gang-ridden neighborhood before the "festivities" began. I didn't see a single White face, thank goodness.

While the action escalated, Page Hopkins became more and more disgusted, saying, "This is no longer about racism, this is just illegality... criminal behavior." Just then, a helicopter camera focused in on a group of about 50 blacks who where exiting homes with looted goods, waving the items above their heads with glee. Another group of blacks were taped kicking in the front door of a tavern. It took several teams of blacks numerous attempts to penetrate the well-fortified door which finally collapsed in. Blacks then swarmed into the building and re-appeared in second floor windows waving their arms triumphantly and signaling for others to partake. Soon blacks began exiting the tavern with armfuls of liquor and other stolen goods. The blacks then set fire to the large tavern building which sat sandwiched between small, ranch-style homes. Flames soon appeared on the roof.

At this point Page Hopkins began to describe the situation as a "riot," and for the first time asked the question that until then had not been broached: "Where are the police?" There was not a single police officer in site. They had abandoned the neighborhood to the black mob.