Police: 3 stabbed at KKK rally in Southern California

At least three people were stabbed, one critically, near a planned Ku Klux Klan rally Saturday inSouthern California, police said.

The violence erupted between KKK members and counter-protesters in Anaheim, about 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles, Sgt. Daron Wyatt with theAnaheim Police Department told The Associated Press.

An unidentified Klan member was in custody after the attack, which left three counter-protesters stabbed.

A Klan member was stomped by counter-protesters during the flareup, Wyatt said. Three people were detained in that altercation.

The altercation occurred shortly after several Klan members arrived at a park for a planned rally. "As soon as they got out of their vehicle, immediately they were attacked by counter-protesters and this caused a melee down the block," Wyatt told Reuters.

Witnesses said a peaceful counter-protest had been under way for about three hours when the Klansmen arrived in a black sport utility vehicle. After three men left the SUV and began to unload signs, about 50 counter-protesters rushed over, throwing sticks and yelling, witnesses said.

The stabbing is the latest chapter in the KKK's nearly century-long history in Southern California. Members of the organization, known for its white robes and peaked hoods, held elected office in the 1920s in Anaheim.

In January 2015, packets containing fliers supporting the KKK and condemning civil-rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. were left in the driveways of about 40 homes in Santa Ana, about 8 miles south of Anaheim.

The fliers were headlined: "On Martin Luther King Day, you are celebrating a communist pervert." At the bottom of the fliers came the source: "Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan."

After dips in 2013 and 2014, the number of active KKK groups increased to 190 in 2015, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Contributing: Associated Press, Reuters.