[Scarlett.]

A US state has passed a resolution calling for police to class neo-Nazi groups as terrorist organisations in the wake of the violent clashes in Charlottesville.

The Illinois Senate approved an anti-hate group resolution in direct response to the violence which erupted at a white supremacist rally in Virginia over the weekend leaving one person dead and scores more injured.

The measure, which was passed on Sunday, stated neo-Nazism and white nationalism continue to pose dangerous threats to cohesion and society overall. The resolution argued far-right extremism was accelerating in the attempt to divide America and promote hate.

State Senator Don Harmon, who sponsored the measure, said: “It is vital that we stand in total opposition to the hatred, bigotry and violence displayed by the white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups in Charlottesville this past weekend”.

The Democrat added: “They are the heirs to the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazis. We fought two bloody wars in opposition to their ideologies. We must continue to fight those same twisted ideologies today”.

The senate of the Midwestern state plans to send copies of the resolution to President Donald Trump, members of Congress and Republican Governor Bruce Rauner.

Governor Rauner was subject to a torrent of criticism from Democrats for failing to label the death of Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old women who was killed after a car ploughed into a crowd of anti-fascist protesters in Virginia, as domestic terrorism.

But after saying “What doesn't matter is definitions”, he was eventually forced to perform something of a U-turn and rework his position claiming: ”The deadly violence in Charlottesville this weekend is abhorrent and absolutely an act of domestic terrorism.“

The Independant