Hundreds attacked at Russian music festival

Large group of skinheads attacked crowd at youth festival.

NINETEEN PEOPLE HAVE BEEN injured by a group of skinheads who attacked a crowd at a Russian music festival.

Reports that a teenage girl was killed in the assault have been denied by Russian officials.

The Guardian reports that local footage showed “large groups of bare-chested men with cropped hair” rushing up to the entrance of the Tornado festival.

The concert was being held at a summer camp for young people at Miass, about 850 miles east of Moscow.

Witnesses say the attackers were armed with clubs and sticks and about 100 people were attacked, and that some men fired gunshots into the crowd.

Policemen afterwards collected batons and axes from the festival believed to belong to the skinheads.

At least 60 people were killed and over 300 injured in hate crimes in Russia last year, according to a rights group that monitors racist violence. Activists say that increasing xenophobia in Russia couple with a corrupt police force allow far-right groups to gain ground.