( CNN ) -- Police have released more than 60 soccer fans detained Saturday in downtown Moscow riots that injured 29 people , an interior department spokesman said Sunday , according to state-run media . Hundreds of soccer fans clashed with Moscow police as an unsanctioned nationalist-tinged mass memorial for a fellow supporter turned violent , according to state media . The confrontations took place in Manezh Square , outside the Kremlin , and led to the arrests of 65 Spartak Moscow fans for `` disobedience , '' Moscow police spokesman Viktor Biryukov said , according to official Russian news agency Itar-Tass . An undetermined number of people -- including several police -- were hurt in the clashes , news agencies reported . Russian football has been in the spotlight since the country was named as the host of the 2018 World Cup finals earlier this month . The head of the Spartak Moscow fan club told the semi-official news agency RIA Novosti that the showdown had nothing to do with sports but instead was rooted in problems in Russian society . Nationalist group members stirred the clashes , Russian Football Union president Sergei Fursenko told the news agency . Some 5,000 fans of the Moscow soccer club had gathered to remember a fellow fan , Yegor Sviridov , who was killed December 6 in northern Moscow by several men from Russia 's Caucasus region . Police blocked their rally , but fans then started a fight with men from Caucasus , reported Itar-Tass . Hundreds of fans chanted nationalist slogans , with some throwing flares and smoke pellets at police . Video on the independent Russia 24 network showed helmeted police officers clubbing protesters and dragging them away . Anti-riot police used batons to try to break up the gathering and help facilitate traffic through the area , according to Itar-Tass . Some fights broke out , and several police officers were injured . Moscow police chief Vladimir Kolokoltsev used a megaphone to urge the crowd to disperse , saying , `` You have let ( your ) steam out . Now you 'd better go home , '' reported Itar-Tass . Kolokoltsev later credited Interior Ministry official Yuri Demidov for giving `` exhaustive answers '' to fans ' questions and calming them down . Still , according to Itar-Tass , about 300 supporters `` crushed everything '' on their way from the square to the subway , breaking lights on escalators and smashing windows on a train . Kolokoltsev said that he was confident that all those involved in the December 6 confrontation in northern Moscow would be arrested . Itar-Tass reported Friday that two of those suspects had already been detained .
A confrontation occurs at an unsanctioned mass memorial for a slain soccer fan . About 5,000 Spartak Moscow supporters clashed with police near the Kremlin . The violence left one person dead and more than 100 injured, according to Russian media reports. More than 60 fans who were detained are released . The head of the team 's fan club says the incident has nothing to do with soccer .