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PORTLAND, Ore. For days, Portland has served as ground zero for American hate, heroism and healing. Today, it served as Americas battleground.

What started Sunday as two counterdemonstrations outside City Hall between anti-fascist protesters and members of the alt-right during a Trump Free Speech Rally evolved into an impromptu march and standoff with police.

As police began closing off Chapman Square, where the anti-fascists had staged their protest, at around 3:45 p.m., officers lobbed loud explosives in the protestors direction. Its unclear whether they were concussion or tear gas grenades, but there was a yellow smoke emanating from some of them. At least five explosions were heard as police pushed people back from that square.

Portland police said the explosives were in response to projectiles thrown at its officers.

Following the release of the explosives, hundreds of the anti-fascist protesters and others started an impromptu march, heading northbound from City Hall and pouring into major roadways open to traffic.

The protesters were held up by police at Fourth Ave. and Morrison Street in Downtown Portland, where officers arrested some and pushed others with batons.

Police fired non-lethal rounds at protesters hiding in a parking garage near the intersection. Shortly after, a chemical substance was released from the spot police fired, burning and stinging marcherslungs and noses. It wasnt immediately clear whether police fired chemical rounds, but the department tweeted that coughing in the crowd was caused by an unknown substance,possibly from parking garage, and not released by police.

Anti-fascist protestors and others storm the streets north of City Hall. (Andy Campbell)

Earlier,HuffPost reporters witnessed several scattered arrests made for disorderly conduct.

As early as 10:30 a.m., the self-proclaimed anti-fascist and alt-right groups had occupied the parks surrounding City Hall. Shoving and screaming ensued until police showed up, including local and state officers, riot police and Department of Homeland Security officers. After that, each side hurled insults at the other.

A third crowd the largest of local liberals protesting the Trump supporters sat outside City Hall.

On each side, demonstrators braced for the moment when police would leave and barriers would fall.

It was a battle theyd been preparing for all week; longstanding tensions between anti-fascists and the alt-right were compounded by the hate-fueled slashing on May 26 that left two dead and a nation in uproar.

In the Trump camp, which had planned its rally days before the recent attack, celebrity alt-righters like Pat Based Spartan Washington stood among people with Nazi symbolism tattooed on their arms and civilian peacekeepers in military gear.

The loudest demonstrators on each side were often the last to identify themselves.

Were surrounded, one woman in a Make America Great Again hat said. Thats Portland for ya.

The Trump rally was already expected to attract alt-right figures from out of state some of whom are straight up neo-Nazis but rumors that that demonstrators would beexercising their right to carry gunsprompted local activists to reconsider and had all sides preparing for war. Mayor Ted Wheelers attempt to revoke a permit for the rally was declined by the federal government.

Joey Gibson, who organized todays Trump rally as well as the one on April 29 at which last weeks stabbing suspect Jeremy Joseph Christian was seen throwing up Nazi salutes, spoke after 2 p.m. to hundreds.

Portland I mean no disrespect, but you have gotten crazy out here, he screamed into a mic. Youre sitting here in a bubble and weve been on the outside looking in, but no more.

He said he wanted to stop focusing on racism as anti-fascists audibly condemned him from across the street.

Anti-fascists in Portland had planned to hold a self-defense and group tactics seminar Saturday, but organizers told HuffPost that it was canceled after white nationalists and neo-Nazis mobilized against them.

The Trump rallys co-organizer, Kyle Based Stickman Chapman, has engaged anti-fascist protesters in battle before. His group of mostly white men called the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights was labeled a fight club by The New York Times and issued a call to arms to his followers for Sunday.

Fights in Portland, just a week after known white supremacist Joseph Christian allegedly slashed two men to deathwhile screaming anti-Islamic hate at two teenaged women on a train, feel surprising and excessive to outsiders. But locals saw this coming a mile away this is a city with a white terror crisisand a storied history of racist confrontation. Sunday was a flashpoint in a decades-old fight.

Lydia OConnor contributed reporting.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.

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Violence Erupts In Portland Amid Alt-Right, Anti-Fascist ...