(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-02-14 20:56

DRESDEN - German police arrested 20 people during clashes between left- and right-wing demonstrators in the eastern city of Dresden, officials said Thursday.

But some 1,600 police helped keep to a minimum the violence that had been anticipated as the city marked the 63rd anniversary of the deadly Allied firebombing in 1945, authorities said.

"Through the ... police effort, neither the right nor the left were able to misuse the day for their purposes," Saxony state interior minister Albrecht Buttolo said.

The detentions happened Wednesday night as some 750 far-right demonstrators were confronted by some 150 leftists. Police managed largely to keep the groups apart, but were investigating two of those taken into custody on charges of causing bodily harm.

Meanwhile, 3,000 people attended an evening memorial ceremony at the city's restored baroque Church of Our Lady cathedral, capping the day's commemorations.

Three successive waves of British and US bombers on February 13-14, 1945, set off firestorms and destroyed the centuries-old city center.

An estimated 35,000 people were killed, though the total is disputed.

Far right leaders have in the past caused outrage by comparing the bombing of Dresden to the Holocaust.