Pegida rally draws thousands in Dresden

A march by Germany's anti-Islamic organisation Pegida drew thousands to the eastern city of Dresden today on a day that saw rallies across Europe in support of the movement.
Pegida supporters took to the streets of a number of other European cities, including Prague and the northern French port of Calais, home to the infamous "Jungle" refugee camp for migrants seeking passage across the Channel to Britain.
Pegida and fellow anti-Muslim groups called the rallies following last month's signing of an agreement to create a "Fortress Europe" coalition against a backdrop of Europe's worst refugee crisis since World War II.

Several thousand Pegida supporters turned up in Dresden under clear blue skies in the early afternoon to march along the banks of the River Elbe, which flows through the city, to protest against mass immigration and the "islamisation" of Europe.
Absent was Lutz Bachmann, the movement's founder, owing to illness, organisers said.
Police, who deployed around 1,000 officers for the occasion, said Thursday they expected some 15,000 marchers to show up.

An AFP reporter said several thousand had answered the rallying call an hour after the event began at 1400 GMT.
Many held aloft banners criticising German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is in the firing line for her liberal stance towards refugees, now increasingly coming in for criticism after Germany took in more than a million migrants last year.

Around 2,000 people -- less than the 10,000 expected by police -- meanwhile joined an anti-Pegida rally at which participants urged tolerance towards migrants.
Anti-Pegida marchers chanted slogans including "no place for Nazis" and "we don't need xenophobia, demagoguery or Pegida.