Hundreds protest against Donald Trump in New York

Several hundred people gathered in New York on Thursday demonstrating against Donald Trump outside the smart Manhattan hotel hosting the Republican frontrunner and his rival candidates at a lavish gala.

The crowd held up posters comparing the Republican presidential frontrunner to Adolf Hitler and accused him of being racist and anti-immigration amid a heavy police presence.

“No Trump, no racism, immigrants are welcome here!” members of the gathering shouted. “New York is a no hate zone!” another slogan said.

“The GOP platform is hate and fear,” said Jason Hurd, a former soldier who founded the pacifist movement Iraq Veterans Against the War, referring to the Republican Party. “It’s all the same: be afraid of those people over there,” he added.

Hurd said he had come with a group of other former military personnel to protest against the Manhattan tycoon in the name of veterans.

The largely peaceful gathering broke up without significant incident although demonstrators mocked a journalist for TV channel Fox News.