Accompanied by reporters and the police, the activists carried banners and marched so that the parade could be held despite the ban, Belgrade electronic media reported.

Participants in the march gathered after sending text messages and via social networks and they were guarded by police in full riot gear but the event was conducted without any incidents occurring, media reported.

"We will not be removed, because we are not the ones who should be taken off the streets, we don't need to be isolated. This is the first step so that in a few years we will manage to celebrate and not hide", a member of the parade's organising committee said.

Serbian authorities had banned the Pride Parade that was planned for Saturday, September 28. Belgrade authorities made the decision late Friday afternoon which was later confirmed by Prime Minister Ivica Dacic on Serbia's national television (RTS) news programme. Dacic cut short an official visit to Greece so that he could assess the security situation with regard to the parade.

The US Embassy in Belgrade on Friday night expressed its deep disappointment because of the decision by Serbian authorities to ban the Pride Parade and strongly condemned threats of violence against the participants of this event.

Equal opportunities commissioner Neven Petrusic said that it was alarming to see data on just how much hate and intolerance toward the LGBT population there was particularly among the young. She said that the "state authorities had again this year failed in their duty - to secure a minority group to enjoy one of the basic constitutional rights."

A member of the parade's organising, Goran Miletic, said that the ban on the parade was "bad news" and that he knew "how that decision will reflect on negotiations with the European Union."

President of the Liberal Democratic Party Cedomir Jovanovic criticised the government and said that "not one government in Serbia had a better opportunity to secure the functioning of the rule of law, as the incumbent one."