Around 2,000 demonstrators gathered in the German city of Cottbus over the weekend to protest mass migration after the city had seen a rise in violence that often involved migrants.

The protest, organised by the group Zukunft Heimat or Future Homeland, saw 2,000 individuals gather to protest the ongoing migrant violence in the city, Deutsche Welle reports.

Among the protesters were everyday Germans, young and old, along with right-wing activists.

One of the most famous faces at the event was Dresden-based anti-Islamisation movement PEGIDA founder Lutz Bachmann who gave a speech to the crowd. Anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) politician Daniel Freiherr von Lutzow was also present but did not speak.

Ein starkes Zeichen: 5000 protestieren in #Cottbus für eine Wende in der Asylpolitikhttps://t.co/OXnMcY6qFV pic.twitter.com/0GVxpwLYYv — Zukunft Heimat e.V. (@zukunft_heimat) February 4, 2018

A smaller group of counter-demonstrators, estimated to comprise of around 600 individuals, was also present at the event but was outnumbered by the anti-mass migration crowd.

The protests come after a series of high-profile violent clashes in the city between locals and migrants. In one case, a Syrian migrant became the first person to be banned from the city after he pulled out a knife on a young local couple.

Shortly after announcing the ban, the city government released a statement indicating that the city would not be taking in any new asylum seekers. Cottbus joined a number of other German towns like Delmenhorst, Wilhelmshaven, and Salzgitter in Lower Saxony which all banned new arrivals last year.

The city is not the only city in Germany dealing with an explosion of crime in which migrants are often suspects. In the German capital of Berlin, the Alexanderplatz area has been turned into what some are calling a no-go zone due to the influx of asylum seeker drug dealers and petty thieves.

According to the Berlin police, the presence of more criminals in the area has also led to a surge in sex attacks, as well. Police say that the number of incidents doubled from 2016 to 2017.