Thousands of people opposing president-elect Donald Trump march in Chicago and New York, chanting “not my president”.

Thousands of people have taken to the streets in several US cities to protest against Republican Donald Trump’s surprise victory in the presidential election, condemning his campaign rhetoric around immigrants, Muslims and other groups.

On Wednesday evening, thousands of protesters thronged streets in midtown Manhattan, New York City. Some burned a US flag as they reached the Trump Tower while others chanted: “Not my president”.

In Chicago, roughly 1,000 people attempted to gather outside the Trump International Hotel and Tower downtown while chanting phrases such as “No Trump! No KKK! No racist USA”.

Chicago police closed roads in the area, blocking the demonstrators’ path.

Protesters condemned Trump’s campaign pledge to build a wall along the border with Mexico to keep out undocumented immigrants and other policies perceived as affecting people of colour.

Should US President-elect Donald Trump's opponents be protesting against the election result? #TrumpProtest — Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) November 10, 2016

In his victory speech, however, Trump said he would be president for all Americans, saying: “It is time for us to come together as one united people.”

In Chicago, Angie Victoria, 27, told Al Jazeera: “I think [Trump] getting elected is an atrocity. There’s no way he’s qualified to be president, he’s so erratic. There’s no platform; he just appealed to people stewing in bigotry and racism.”

Izzy Mosser, 19, said: “A presidency under Trump is … scary. The only good thing is that people are coming together to stop him. It’s dividing and uniting at the same time.”

Protesters reach Trump Tower as they march in Manhattan, New York [Eduardo Munoz/Reuters]

In Austin, the Texas capital, about 400 people staged a march through the city’s streets, police said.

Other protests were organised in Washington DC, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Tennessee and other cities.

Earlier in the day, some 1,500 California students and teachers rallied in the courtyard of Berkeley High School, a San Francisco Bay Area city known for its progressive politics, before marching towards the campus of the University of California, Berkeley.

Hundreds of high school and college students walked out in protest in Seattle, Phoenix, Los Angeles and three other cities in the Bay Area, Richmond, El Cerrito and Oakland.

A predominantly Latino group of about 300 high school students walked out of classes on Wednesday morning in Los Angeles and marched to the steps of City Hall, where they held a brief but energetic rally.

Chanting in Spanish, “The people united will never be defeated,” the group held signs with slogans such as “Not Supporting Racism, Not My President” and “Immigrants Make America Great.”

Many of those students were members of the “Dreamers” generation, children whose parents entered the US with them illegally, school officials said, and who fear deportation under a Trump administration.

Wednesday’s demonstrations followed a night of protests around the San Francisco Bay Area and elsewhere in the country in response to Trump’s political upset.

In heavily Democrat Washington DC, hundreds of Trump opponents and a few of his supporters gathered by the White House, chanting in support of immigrants and against the president-elect.

Demonstrators attacked storefront windows and set garbage and tyres ablaze late on Tuesday in the business district of Oakland, California.