MOURNERS gathered in the US city of Charlottesville yesterday to honour Heather Heyer who was killed after a neonazi rammed into a crowd protesting against Saturday’s far-right march.

The morning memorial service took place at the city’s Paramount Theatre as condemnation against US President Donald Trump’s shocking response to the tragedy mounted.

On Tuesday Mr Trump enraged both Republicans and Democrats after he defended far-right protesters at the Charlottesville rally, saying they were not all neonazis and white supremamacists.

The US president told reporters that there were “some very bad people” among the “Unite the Right” protesters but added: “You also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.”

He went on to claim that the protesters were attacked with weapons by the “alt-left.”

The march opposing the removal of a statue of US general Robert E Lee was confronted by anti-fascists protests. Ms Heyer was killed and 19 others injured when a car was deliberately driven into them.

The driver James Fields, now in custody, was described by a former high school teacher as an admirer of Adolf Hitler and nazi Germany.

Mr Trump’s failure to fully condemn the white supremacists drew widespread criticism.

His fellow Republican John McCain tweeted: “There is no moral equivalency between racists & Americans standing up to defy hate & bigotry [sic],” while the president’s election rival Marco Rubio said: “Mr President, you can’t allow #WhiteSupremacists to share only part of blame [sic]. They support idea which cost nation & world so much pain.”

At the tense press conference Mr Trump also defended members of the march who wanted the statue to stay put.

“So, this week it’s Robert E Lee,” he said. “I wonder,‘is it George Washington next week and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?” The president’s off-script rant was also slammed by Holocaust Educational Trust chief executive Karen Pollock. She said: “The Holocaust did not start with the gas chambers, it started with words, with hate-filled rhetoric. “To therefore see neonazi, racist and anti-semitic symbols and language used in Charlottesville should shock and horrify all of us. “There is no moral equivalency between racists and Americans standing up to defy hate and bigotry.”