Large crowds of people rallied in Auckland against the government’s social distancing restrictions imposed on the country’s largest city after an outbreak of the novel coronavirus last month, Reuters reported.

Local television footage showed tightly packed crowds, with many people not wearing masks, with estimates of the attendance varying in reports between a thousand and a few thousand people.

“We are all here today because we believe we need to stand up for our rights,” the public Television New Zealand cited Jami-Lee Ross, the leader of the Advance New Zealand party, one of the organisers of the protest, as saying.

“We’re all here today because we believe it’s time to stand up and say, ‘We need to get our rights and freedoms back’.”