AKIPRESS.COM - A record 25,000 people have joined an anti-Islamisation rally in Dresden, Germany, called in the wake of the Paris terror attacks.

The protesters defied calls from German politicians to stay away from the Pegida organisation's rally, reports BBC.

Elsewhere across Germany, tens of thousands of people joined anti-Pegida rallies.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she will attend a protest organised by Muslim groups in Berlin on Tuesday.

Justice Minister Heiko Maas was one of several leading politicians to urge the Pegida march organisers in Dresden not to "misuse" the deadly attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket.

However, the rally in the eastern city went ahead, drawing a record 25,000.

Marchers carried banners expressing solidarity with the French cartoonists, killed by Islamists in Paris.

A minute's silence in memory of the dead was also expected to be held.