Hundreds demonstrate against Donald Trump in New York

New York: Several hundred people gathered in New York on Thursday demonstrating against Donald Trump outside the smart Manhattan hotel hosting the Republican frontrunner and his rival candidates at a lavish gala.

The crowd held up posters comparing the Republican presidential frontrunner to Adolf Hitler and accused him of being racist and anti-immigration amid a heavy police presence. 

"No Trump, no racism, immigrants are welcome here!" members of the gathering shouted. "New York is a no hate zone!" another slogan said.

"The GOP platform is hate and fear," said Jason Hurd, a former soldier who founded the pacifist movement Iraq Veterans Against the War, referring to the Republican Party.

"It`s all the same: be afraid of those people over there," he added. 

Hurd said he had come with a group of other former military personnel to protest against the Manhattan tycoon in the name of veterans.

The largely peaceful gathering broke up without significant incident although demonstrators mocked a journalist for TV channel Fox News.