According to the Expressen newspaper, the Festival Eritrea Scandinavia, held at the Järvafältet park in northern Stockholm, has long been criticised for its connections to the African country’s repressive regime.

The problem started when counter-demonstrators broke through the protective barrier police had erected around the festival, and began vandalising the tents .

“The police are at the scene to break up these criminal acts. This is about people who have chosen not to follow the instructions police have given them,” Towe Hägg, a police spokesperson, told the TT newswire.

According to police, no reports have yet come in of any participants in the festival, police officers, or bystanders being injured. 

A reporter for Expressen counted at least nine police buses at the scene, together with ambulances and fire engines. 

The E18 motorway was completely shut down to traffic at Järva because some of the protestors were on the road. Buses to and around the nearby Stockholm district of Tensta were cancelled. The Stockholm Metro was operating normally. 

According to the local Nyhetsbyrån Järva new site, the festival has been organised since the 1990s, with the organisers criticised for accepting millions of kronor from the Eritrean government to hold the event. 

In previous years, demonstrations have been held against the festival by a group called the “Dawit Isaak Campaign”, named after the Swedish-Eritrean writer who has been imprisoned in the country without trial since 2001.