FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Police broke up political counter-demonstrations of about 200 people at Colorado State University after a group showed up armed with bats and shields and wearing masks with skulls on them.

Some of the people carrying bats during the demonstration Friday night were chanting a Nazi slogan, the Fort Collins Coloradoan reported . The newspaper did not quote the slogan.

The disturbance occurred one day after anti-immigration fliers attributed to the Traditionalist Worker Party were posted around campus. The Southern Poverty Law Center identifies the group as white nationalists.

Campus police were unable to determine the group’s political leanings before officers dispersed the crowd, CSU spokeswoman Dell Rae Ciaravola said.

She said police acted because of the potential for violence.

The demonstration took place outside a student center where conservative activist Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, was speaking. Kirk distanced himself from white supremacists during his talk.

“That BS they’re trying to say out there, it’s not who we are, it’s not what we believe, it’s not what Turning Point believes,” Kirk said.

“It’s very funny, they say, ‘Oh Charlie, you must be an ethno-nationalist because these four people with no lives show up outside your event. First of all, that’s a bunch of nonsense. Second of all, I don’t remember anyone saying that when all the communists show up to the Democrat events.”

The demonstrators outside the student center included supporters of President Donald Trump and anti-fascist activists, but the gathering was mostly peaceful before the group carrying bats arrived, officials and witnesses said.

“They didn’t come to have a conversation,” said Ally Price, who was present when the group arrived. “They came to be scary.”

Witnesses said they saw one person hit by a flashlight and another by a cane. Police said no one was arrested.

CSU President Tony Frank said some groups present had “a goal of violence to spread their fear,” but he said the university was prepared and had a security plan in place after the fliers showed up on campus.