More than 20,000 Kurdish immigrants have protested in Germany against the Islamic State group.

Police said the demonstration Saturday in the western German city of Duesseldorf was peaceful with people marching through the city's downtown area and waving large Kurdish flags.

The protesters are seeking to draw attention to the Islamic State group's onslaught against the Kurdish town of Kobani in northern Syria.

Similar protests last week turned violent in some German cities when Kurds clashed with supporters of a hard-line Islamic movement.

Around 1 million Kurds live in Germany. Most of them immigrated in the 1960s when Germany was recruiting guest workers from Turkey.

Thousands of Kurdish protesters also marched in Paris on Saturday to demonstrate against the Islamic State group.

AP