December 15, 2010

Moscow police have arrested more than 1,000 people across the city center in a bid to prevent ethnic clashes from erupting following the deadly shooting of a football fan.

Moscow city police spokesman Vitkor Biryukov said many of the arrests were made at the Kievsky train station, where police deployed more than 1,000 riot troops in anticipation of a street battle that had been reportedly scheduled there.

Scuffles erupted outside the Kievsky station, which is popular with traders from the Caucasus, as hundreds of riot police rounded up and detained young men and teenagers shouting racist slogans.

Biryukov said "several air guns, knives, clubs, and and stun guns" were confiscated. He added that police patrols had been stepped up throughout the center of the city.

Rumours of the Kievsky station standoff spread across the Russian Internet following a weekend riot outside the Kremlin involving some 5,000 football fans and elements of the far right.

compiled from agency reports