Far right protesters attack refugee buses during violent demonstrations

Up to 1,000 protesters have clashed with police in eastern Germany in riots reportedly sparked by the arrival of 250 migrants.

Police said protesters shouting “foreigners out” and carrying banners against the “asylum flood” threw bottles and stones at busloads of asylum seekers arriving in Heidenau, near Dresden.

At least 31 officers were hurt in violent scuffles as police used tear gas to disperse crowds.

Peaceful demonstrations began after news spread that the town was welcoming a large number of refugees who are set to be housed in an empty building.

The protest was hijacked by a group of far-right radicals, many belonging to the militant National Democratic Party (NPD), considered a neo-Nazi organisation.

“After the riots, the situation is now calm,” a police spokesman told Tagesspiegel online, adding it was not yet clear how many people had been injured or how many arrests had been made.

Justice Minister Heiko Maas condemned the riots on Twitter saying that Germany will “never tolerate that people are threatened and attacked in our country.”

Maas said authorities will use the "toughness of the rule of law to strike back" against right-wing protesters like those who attacked police Friday night and blocked the road to an asylum shelter in Heidenau to stop migrants from moving in.

German news agency dpa reported the first asylum seekers were only able to move into the home early Saturday after police dispersed the rioters. Up to 600 migrants are expected to find shelter in the former warehouse.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has said the influx of asylum seekers is the biggest problem Europe currently faces.

The number of migrants is set to increase after hundreds of migrants crossed unhindered from Greece into neighbouring Macedonia before boarding trains to take them to Serbia en route to Hungary and the European Union’s borderless Schengen Zone.

In December 2014, thousands of people had protested against the “Islamisation” of Germany.