More anti-racism protests held across the South

Campaigners attended Oxford's Bonn Square on Saturday

Hundreds of anti-racism campaigners took to streets across the South on Saturday.

The demos were in response to violence across England and Northern Ireland fuelled by far-right and anti-immigration sentiment.

Thousands of police were deployed across the country poised for more than 100 possible events expected on Saturday.

All rallies were reported to be peaceful and one protester, Rachel Collins, said it was "important to spread a message of love and kindness and inclusivity".

Rachel Collins said she had "always" felt Southampton to be inclusive

Ms Collins, who attended the rally in Southampton with about 250 other people, said: "It's important that we really focus on being kind and polite to people of all societies rather than just our own.

"[Southampton] feels like an inclusive place; it felt like that on Wednesday when everyone turned up; it feels like it today."

Campaigners also rallied in the city centre of Portsmouth on Saturday

Retired academic Prof Ademuni-Odeke said he arrived in the UK as a refugee from Uganda in the 1970s after violence erupted during Idi Amin's dictatorship.

"This country is very welcoming to refugees and migrants and other people who have contributed," he said.

Prof Ademuni-Odeke arrived in the UK from Uganda in the 1970s

"I came to this country myself as a refugee and because I was welcomed here, I was allowed to go to school and become a professor in this country.

"It's very important that this country remains the same."

In Weymouth, about 50 people attended a rally organised by Stand Up To Racism Dorset and other local anti-racism groups.

Two Dorset Police officers attended.

Bishop Angie McLachlan, who belongs to the Liberal Catholic Church International, said: "I'm here because I passionately feel that everything I stand for is being said today."

Angie McLachlan said she wanted to represent solidarity at the protest in Weymouth

She added: "I really cannot understand how anybody feels that racism and discrimination on any level is appropriate, kind, nice or even helpful to our country or our world at the moment and so I feel I have to be here in order to represent solidarity."

Candy Udwin, the joint secretary of Stand Up to Racism Dorset said the gathering sent a "positive message that anti-racists will not stand for those horrible scenes of violence and hatred and division that we saw on the streets of Britain and Weymouth last week".

Luke Philpott said he attended his first rally in Oxford after being upset by the violence over recent weeks.

Luke Philpott said he had been left "staggered" by the violence in recent events

He said: "I have been really staggered by the fascism on the streets over the last week and really upset by it - from the point of view of someone who loves my country and doesn't want to see it taken over by what I believe is a small minority of people who feel this way about others."

A smaller protest was also held in Reading's Broad Street on Saturday