Members of far right groups were met with boos, heckles and house music as they tried to protest in Manchester today.

Around 40 members of the Far Right Infidels and Combat 18 groups came to Manchester attempting to hold an event in the city centre.

But they were met by a counter protest of anti-fascist activists, who drowned them out with jokes and house music on the edge of Piccadilly Gardens.

In what was largely a peaceful event, activists and onlookers surrounded the small group and shouted jokes like ‘Master race? You’re having a laugh.” and “You don’t live in Cheetham Hill or Moss Side - you must be from Emmerdale.”

Members of the far right groups, one dressed in a Ku Klux Klan costume, held flags aloft and threw bananas towards black and Asian members of the crowd, shouting ‘You’re not British anymore’.

A large police presence controlled the event and kept the two groups apart.

Police horses and cordons of officers on foot were used to separate protesters, while riot vans and police dogs were kept on standby.

The event, which started around 2.30pm, lasted around an hour before the far right groups were escorted onto a bus and driven out of town.

As the vehicle pulled away, members of the far right groups threw pennies and other missiles at the protesters below and held up signs against the window.

A crowd of around 200 anti-fascist protesters and passers-by, who had stopped to watch cheered and shouted ‘bye-bye’ as the bus drove away.

IN PICTURES: (gallery contains offensive gestures)

The event passed off with minimal arrests.

One far right protester was dragged out of the crowd and taken to a police van while an anti-fascist protester was also seen being spoken to by police.

Afterwards organisers of the anti-fascist counter-protest said they were pleased at how many people had turned out, and that shoppers and passersby who had seen what was going on had also got involved on the spur of the moment.

Some campaigners had travelled to Manchester from Liverpool, where last week the far right group National Action were forced to cancel their White Man March after counter-demonstrations by anti-fascists.

Emma Leyla Mohareb, 26, from Hattersley, in Hyde, from anti-austerity group The Party Protest, was one of the organisers of the counter demonstration.

She said: “We don’t want them in our city. People shouldn’t feel ashamed of the colour of their skin. We are proud of our multicultural Manchester.

“The atmosphere at the protest was brilliant - it was nice to see everyone say ‘no’ to racism in our city. The fascists were out numbered.”