Far-right residents have clashed with asylum-seekers in a town in eastern Germany that has become a flashpoint for anti-refugee sentiment, BBC News reports.

Some 80 men and women fought with 20 migrants and refugees in Bautzen, to the east of Dresden, late on Wednesday, September 17.

The asylum-seekers were chased to their hostel and put under police guard.

Anti-migrant tensions have been mounting in Bautzen this year. Locals cheered when a building due to house migrants was set on fire in February.

The following month, President Joachim Gauck was verbally abused when he visited Bautzen to discuss the influx of refugees in Germany.

Bautzen and the nearby town of Niedergurig are home to four asylum shelters.

The town is 60km (38 miles) east of Dresden, where the "anti-Islamisation" Pegida movement began.

Since the arrival last year of 1.1 million irregular migrants and refugees in Germany, some areas, particularly eastern states, have seen a rise in anti-migrant violence as well as support for the anti-Islam AfD party.

Wednesday's outbreak of violence in Bautzen points to an escalation of tensions in the town.