Leszek Szymański/PAP

An Independence March organised by nationalist groups to mark Poland’s Independence Day is passing through Warsaw streets peacefully, the city’s mayor has said.

Around 40,000 marchers, carrying Poland’s white-and-red national flags, are taking part in the Sunday march, according to Rafal Trzaskowski, the mayor of Warsaw.

Large numbers of police have been deployed in central Warsaw, and the route is also patrolled by police helicopters.

The rally held in Warsaw every year to mark Poland’s Independence Day on November 11 has often been marred by violence by nationalist extremists in the past.

But this year’s celebrations are “peaceful” and “under control,” Trzaskowski said on Sunday at 4pm.

He added that some incidents related to burning the European Union and rainbow flags were brought to the police’s attention but that these incidents “regardless of what it meant, did not pose any major threat to the march participants.”