Pro-EU campaigners have today staged an anti-Brexit 'flash mob' protest in Canterbury city centre.

Dozens of EU flag-waving demonstrators gathered in the Buttermarket where they sang the European anthem, based on the, Ode to Joy.

It is the second anti-Brexit rally in the city organised by campaigner Louise Hummerstone of Canterbury for Europe.

But organisers say the smaller turnout for the latest one may have been depleted by the flu and poor weather.

Louise Hummerstone of Canterbury for Europe, said: "I’m very, very angry about Brexit, and I was motivated, when I heard Iain Duncan Smith say 'we’re all Brexiteers now'. That’s not true, and so I decided to do something about it.

"I’ve been on a lot of marches in London and Manchester, and I decided that Canterbury needed an event.

"So I started telling friends that I wanted to do something and I decided to organise a flash mob, and realised there was a lot of support for it, and that’s great."

One of the demonstrators was Jonathan Barnes, ex-head teacher of St Peter’s Methodist Primary School, who has lived in Canterbury for 46 years:

"I believe that friendship is actually much better than not friendship, and I think anything that promotes friendship and relationship between nations is a better thing than that that promotes isolation," he said.

"I know there are faults in the EU. Everybody knows there are faults in the EU, but that gesture of togetherness and of shared culture, of shared ideals, shared aspirations, is actually more important than being separate. Simple as that."

The rally sparked heated exchanges between pro and anti EU supporters on Kent Online and Facebook.

”