A widely-condemned white nationalist rally in Washington drew fewer than two dozen supporters, and was drowned out by thousands of counter-protesters chanting "Nazis go home" and "No KKK in the USA".

Organisers of the "Unite the Right 2" rally had obtained a permit for up to 400 far-right demonstrators to gather outside the White House.

The event was intended to mark the first anniversary of a similar rally in Charlottesville, Virginia last year when neo-Nazis paraded through the streets and Heather Heyer, a counter-protester, died after a far-right sympathiser ploughed a car into a crowd.

Jason Kessler, the organiser of both the Charlottesville and Washington rallies, emerged form an underground train station in the capital carrying US flags and flanked by a handful of supporters.

They marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, escorted by police in riot gear.

There had been reports that David Duke, the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, would speak at the event, but he did not attend.

In Lafayette Square, opposite the White House, counter-protesters included masked members of the Antifa anti-fascist group, along with a wide cross-section of Washington residents.

Mark Williams, 48, a Gulf War military veteran and counter-protester, told The Telegraph: "I believe the only good Nazi is a dead Nazi. We killed Nazis before, I don’t have a problem with doing it now."

He added: "I’m a little old to engage in that. But I’m not surprised so few of them turned up. They were scared, and they should have been."

Makia Green, of Black Lives Matter, told the counter-rally: "We know from experience that ignoring white nationalism doesn’t work."

Kessler claimed his event was a "white civil rights rally" and had been about advocating "free speech for everybody". He added: "It was a precedent that had to be set."

As the far-right demonstrators left, counter-protesters attempted to block their path with barricades of bamboo and shopping trolleys. Police escorted the far-right group away in vans.

Later, there were some standoffs and minor scuffles between Antifa protesters in body armour and helmets, and police on motorcycles, in streets near the White House. President Donald Trump was away in New Jersey for the weekend.

Kessler had been denied a permit to hold a rally in Charlottesville again this year.

At a counter-protest there Heather Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, asked the crowd to raise their fists in solidarity, and laid flowers at a memorial.

She said the United States had a "huge racial problem" and still "so much healing to do".