Thousands attend Black Lives Matter protests across Europe

Thousands of Black Lives Matter demonstrators formed a socially-distanced human chain in Germany's capital city, Berlin, on Sunday. /AP

More than 20,000 people attended a Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest in Berlin on Sunday as demonstrations continued across Europe.

For the second consecutive week, people lined the streets of Germany's capital to protest for racial equality following the murder of African American George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer in the U.S. on 25 May.

A socially distanced human chain - stretching from the world-famous Brandenburg Gate past the TV tower at Alexanderplatz and into the ethnically diverse Neukoelln district - had to be extended to accommodate the numbers.

The progressive movement group, Unteilbar (indivisible) organized the protest, which also saw people campaign against inequality, which the group says is worsening because of the pandemic.

Unteilbar spokesman Georg Wissmeier said: "The coronavirus is worsening existing inequalities. Many people are threatened with being left behind. We will not allow that. Human rights, social justice and climate justice belong together indivisibly."

An estimated 4,000 people also gathered in Switzerland's capital, Bern, as part of the Black Lives Matter protests, while a further 10,000 marched in Zurich.

Police wanted to halt the Zurich march over concerns that it could accelerate the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic but allowed it to go ahead on the provision that it remained peaceful. No incidents were reported during the protests.

Protestors gathered to campaign for racial equality following the murder of George Floyd in the U.S. but also protested about worsening inequality in Germany as a result of the pandemic./AP

Similar gatherings also took place in Lucerne, while 10,000 people gathered in Geneva on Tuesday to coincide with Floyd's funeral in the U.S.

BLM protestors have also left their mark in Italy, where a statue of Italian journalist Indro Montanelli was covered in red paint and the words "racist" and "rapist" scrawled across the monument.

Montanelli admitted to buying a 12-year-old Ethiopian girl, Desta, to be his wife when he was 24 during Italy's colonial occupation of the country in the 1930s.

Despite that confession, which was made during a TV interview in 1969, a statue of him was erected in a Milan park bearing his name following his death in 1992 and the city's mayor, Giuseppe Sala, says the statue should stay.