MOSCOW (AP) — More than 10,000 people have taken to the streets in Moscow to protest a controversial plan to tear down Soviet-era low-rise apartment blocks.

Protesters gathered on a central street on Sunday to rally against arguably Russia's largest redevelopment project to pull down entire neighborhoods of Soviet-era prefabricated buildings. City Hall has insisted the buildings are too dilapidated and outdated while many residents and activists see the plans as a ruse to make way for high-rise ghettos in some of Moscow's leafiest neighborhoods.

Muscovites on Sunday marched with flags of their neighborhoods and chanted "Resign!" in reference to the Moscow mayor and the City Hall.

The five-story buildings to be demolished, known as "khrushchevki" after Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, were built in the 1950s and 1960s to tackle a housing crisis.