There was a large police presence in Malmö city centre on Sunday with around 150-200 officers deployed to keep order.

Around 50 anti-Israel protesters had gathered but they were kept apart from the main demonstration, in front of the city hall on Stortorget, by a police barrier.

The counter-demonstrators were practically encircled by police but still managed to set off a number of bangers which disturbed the otherwise peaceful demonstration.

The ant-Israel demonstrators displayed a sense of humour with several banners expressing comments on recent events concerning racism and racist stereotyping of some of Malmö’s residents by members of the police force.

One banner included the text “fucking pigs” (grisajävlar) in response to police comments referring to young people during the December unrest in Malmö suburb Rosengård as “fucking apes” (apejävlar).

“We consider it (the demonstration) to have been managed very well and we had total control,” said Lars Håkan Lindholm at Malmö police.

Some of the ten people arrested are suspected of assaulting a police officer and other public order offences.