‘You are not welcome in this city’: Police move neo-Nazis on from CBD

Dozens of white nationalists, most wearing disposable masks to hide their faces, marched through Brisbane’s CBD on Sunday morning under watch from uniformed and undercover police.

The marchers, all wearing black, appeared to be representing the far-right National Socialist Network, regarded as Australia’s main neo-Nazi organisation. They carried a banner calling for a “Free England” and chanted as they walked along otherwise quiet streets and footpaths.

Footage taken by one marcher shows an officer telling the group to move on, saying they were breaching the peace and disrupting traffic with their “unlawful assembly”.

As one marcher carrying a loud hailer insists the group have “just walked around” – playing down any intention to cause disruption – the officer reiterates that their behaviour is offensive.

“You are not welcome in this city. Go. Your behaviour is disgusting,” the officer says in the video, filmed opposite King George Square.

One marcher repeatedly referred to nearby police as “pigs”. Shortly afterwards, the officer told the apparent ringleader, visiting NSN leader Thomas Sewell, to “go back to Melbourne”.

There were unconfirmed reports that members of the neo-Nazi group were touring Australia.

Separate footage shows police holding at least one member of the group on the ground.

A Queensland police spokesman said about 40 people had marched from Eagle Street through the CBD.

“It is alleged that during this time, members of the group had become disruptive and obstructed police,” the spokesman said.

“As a result, four men from the group have been taken into custody and are assisting police with their inquiries.”

Charges had yet to be laid and investigations were continuing last night.

The march came less than a week after Australia raised its terrorism threat level for the first time in a decade. Spy agency ASIO declared an attack was now “probable”, as riots continued in the United Kingdom weeks after an election there and ahead of US and Australian polls within the next year.

Authorities fear a complex mix of fringe ideologies – including anti-government conspiracy theories, racism, Islamist extremism and neo-Nazism – is blending with social media-fuelled personal grievance, intolerance, loneliness and mental ill health.

Queensland Premier Steven Miles and LNP Opposition Leader David Crisafulli both condemned the Brisbane march.