MOSCOW, October 16 (RIA Novosti) - A number of people were detained in central Moscow on Friday during a protest over Sunday's regional elections.

Police said they had arrested 10 members of the Avangard Krasnoi Molodezhi (Red Youth Advance Guard) movement during an unsanctioned rally.

"The young people unfurled banners demanding the annulment of the results of polls in Moscow and Astrakhan," a police source told RIA Novosti. "However, they were detained by police officers."

He added that the detained had been taken to a local police station, where they were being "dealt with."

A spokesman for the Left Front coalition movement told RIA Novosti that 18 people had been detained after they began shouting "Shame" and "Freedom."

"People came to express their opinions, and the law doesn't say they have no right to do this. There was no rally," Anastasia Udaltsova said.

Sunday's polls, which saw a landslide nationwide victory for the ruling United Russia party, also saw widespread allegations of fraud.

On Wednesday, three opposition parties - the Communist Party, the LDPR and A Just Russia - walked out of the lower house of parliament in protest at what they said were violations of voting procedures. The LDPR and A Just Russia have since returned, but the Communists have vowed to continue the protest.

Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said monitors had reported "barbarity" on election day.

Russian media reported that OMON riot police officers had fired tear gas at residents of Dagestan's second city of Derbent, where around 14 of 36 polling stations failed to open on election day.

The Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper reported that OMON officers had also attacked journalists attempting to film infringements of voting procedures.