
An outraged bride was blocked from getting to her own wedding day by 50,000 enraged activists protesting against right-wing Alternative for Germany party members meeting in Cologne.

The woman was left baffled when two police officers on motorbikes stopped her as she walked down a cobbled street in her wedding dress and bouquet.

Her wedding was being held at the historical town hall next to the Afd's party conference at the Maritime Hotel in the city centre.

As 600 delegates began filing into the hotel, singing and chanting demonstrators attempted to block them from passing through security barricades, leading to violent scuffles with authorities.

Protesters clashed with 4,000 police officers in western Germany, leading to one man being arrested after an officer suffered an injury to the face.

An outraged bride was blocked from getting to her own wedding day by 50,000 enraged activists protesting against right-wing Alternative for Germany party members meeting in Cologne

The woman was stopped by two police officers on motorbikes as she walked down a cobbled street in her wedding dress and bouquet

Tens of thousands of protesters flood into the streets in Cologne's city centre to rally against Afd members meeting at a convention venue

German police drag one male protester along by the arms. He was arrested after an officer was struck in the face

German police on motorbikes guard wedding guests as they make their way to the town hall - just minutes away from the protesters

Police form a protective ring around the wedding attendees, who are ferried to the venue in rickshaws

Riot police stand guard right outside the entrance to the wedding venue as guests file inside

As the 600 delegates began filing into the congress venue, a hotel in the city centre, singing and chanting demonstrators attempted to block them from passing through security barricades, leading to scuffles with authorities

The two-day convention takes place days after AfD's co-leader Frauke Petry said she won't be her party's top candidate in the September general election amid reported fears the party is becoming a 'catch all for racists'.

The AfD had called for closing borders, restricting Islamic practices and fighting the ruling 'oligarchy' in its election campaign programme released on Thursday.

The AfD, now represented in 11 of Germany's 16 states, aims to sign off on a programme for its campaign that it hopes will pave the way for the party to enter the national parliament for the first time in its four-year history.

After weeks of bitter infighting, co-leader Frauke Petry, who is Germany's best-known nationalist politician, made the shock announcement Wednesday that she would not seek to lead the AfD's campaign.

The news left the party reeling and set the stage for a showdown between populist and more radical, hard-right forces.

The roads are completely blocked with flag-carrying demonstrators as the leftist rally gathers momentum in the afternoon

A scufle breaks out between one group of enraged leftist protesters and the police in the middle of the road

A police officer restrains a protester as a party delegate is escorted on his way to the Maritim Hotel

German police seem to have a violent altercation with one group of protesters in the middle of the street

Two officers pinned a man against a police van as they prepared to handcuff him

German police in riot gear face up against hoards of protesters carrying banners that read 'Smash fascism' at the rally

'(Petry) has been unable to stop the AfD, which began as a party of euro critics, from becoming more and more a catch-all for racists, right-wing nationalists and the far right,' Cologne's daily Stadt-Anzeiger said.

Founded in 2013 on a eurosceptic platform, the AfD seized on Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to let in more than one million asylum seekers since 2015, transforming the German political landscape.

But its fortunes have declined as the number of new arrivals has dwindled, and all of Germany's mainstream parties have ruled out working with it should it clear the five-percent hurdle to representation in the September 24 election.

Opinion polls show the AfD at between seven and 11 percent, a steep drop from the 15 percent support it drew only late last year.

Merkel is seeking a fourth term after nearly 12 years in power and her conservative Christian Democrats are currently leading the polls.

Fights broke out as leftist protesters descended on Cologne, while trying to block right-wing Alternative for Germany party members from entering their convention centre

Protesters carry a banner that reads 'Never let the fascists have the streets' during the rally

A leftist protester holds a sign that reads 'AFD IS WRONG' as he joins the droves of demonstrators on the streets

One demonstrator wears a baseball cap bearing a Swastika sign with a red line through it

About 4,000 police officers are on the ground to prevent a violent escalation of anti-populist rallies

Polling at around 11 per cent now, the four-year-old AfD aims to become the first party to the right of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc to enter the national parliament in September elections.

The AfD opposes all 'mainstream' political parties and what it regards as their allies in the media, arguing that Germany is ruled by a remote elite that is betraying ordinary citizens.

'The secret sovereign in Germany is a small, powerful political oligarchy which has emerged from the existing political parties' and has come to dominate the state, public education and media, argues a draft of its programme.

The AfD stressed its position that 'Islam is not part of Germany' - directly contradicting the message of its declared enemy, Merkel, to the country's estimated 4.5million Muslims.

It also demanded 'the immediate closure of borders to end the chaotic mass immigration,' said a party representative, and said it opposes family reunions for those granted refugee status.

Policemen take a break as they guard the federal congress in Cologne, western Germany

A banner that reads 'No Koelsch beer for Nazis' is strung up next to the Maritim Hotel

Demonstrators strung up the same sign on the side of a boat as they passed by the protests

German police stand guard in front of the Maritim Hotel where delegates are meeting

It demanded an official investigation into Merkel's decision to keep open national borders amid a mass influx of refugees and migrants that has brought one million asylum seekers since 2015.

'We want to pass on to coming generations a country that is still recognisable as our Germany,' said the AFD, bemoaning that 'Germany is losing its cultural identity because of a flawed notion of tolerance'.

Petry, a 41-year-old trained chemist who is pregnant with her fifth child, has aligned herself with kindred spirits across Europe, including far-right firebrand Marine Le Pen, one of the frontrunners for the first round of French elections Sunday.

But given the long shadow still cast by Germany's Nazi past, Petry has argued the AfD must make itself more palatable with a more moderate-sounding 'middle-class' platform she will put to a vote at the congress.

The stated goal is to become Germany's ruling party by 2021.

Denouncing 'provocations' by party officials, Petry has called for the ouster of an AfD state leader, Bjoern Hoecke, who in January sparked outrage by slamming Berlin's vast Holocaust memorial as a 'monument of shame'.

Although Hoecke has been barred from attending the congress, some delegates have said they will put forward a motion to keep him in the party.

Head of the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany party, Frauke Petry gives a speech during the party congress in the Maritim Hotel in Cologne on Saturday

After weeks of bitter infighting, Petry made the shock announcement Wednesday that she would not seek to lead the AfD's campaign. The news set the stage for a showdown between populist and more radical, hard-right forces

Frauke Petry said she won't be her party's top candidate in the September general election amid reported fears the party is becoming a 'catch all for racists'. Pictured, talking to the media after the convention

The AfD stressed its position that 'Islam is not part of Germany' - directly contradicting the message of its declared enemy, Merkel, to the country's estimated 4.5million Muslims

Petry's chief rival, 76-year-old Alexander Gauland, a hardline defector from Merkel's CDU, has said he would back the initiative.

Analysts say the vast majority of the AfD's core supporters are far to the right of the political spectrum.

However they say there is little appetite among most German voters for radical change, particularly after the victories of Donald Trump in the United States and the Brexit camp in Britain.

'In terms of its voters, Petry's attempt to make the AfD a middle-class mainstream party is a very unrealistic strategy,' Robert Vehrkamp of the Bertelsmann Foundation think tank told Spiegel Online.

The news website said the party's inner turmoil also diminished the threat it posed to the establishment in Europe's top economy.

'While in the rest of Europe, opponents of immigration and the EU are on the march, the AfD is busy tearing itself apart,' it said.

'That is good news for the traditional parties and the defenders of liberal values in Germany - at least in its current state, no one needs to fear the AfD.'