Students went on the rampage at the headquarters of Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party yesterday smashing windows, throwing objects at police, and scrawling graffiti on walls.
After trashing the HQ lobby, demonstrators started a fire outside the building, burning effigies of Mr. Cameron and Nick Clegg, his deputy.
Vastly outnumbered, police were powerless to stop the protesters as they ran amok.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson said later, "This was thuggish, loutish behaviour by criminals and we need to ensure that we have a thorough investigation to bring these criminals in front of a court to answer for their crimes. It's not acceptable. It's an embarrassment for London and an embarrassment for us."
About 50,000 demonstrators yesterday began protesting against plans to cut funding to universities and increase tuition fees. The coalition government plans to allow British universities to charge up to £9,000 ($14,500) a year for tuition, almost triple the current level, as it seeks to cut subsidies to colleges.
It says the higher student fees, financed by government-backed loans, will cover the shortfall and allow Britain's universities to compete against international rivals.
But the orderly demonstration turned ugly when a group of protesters descended on the 27-storey Millbank Tower on the north bank of the River Thames, next to the Tate gallery and close to Parliament, and started smashing windows.
About 30 students managed to get on to the roof of the tower to unfurl a banner that read "No to Cuts," while some threw missiles and sprayed fire extinguishers. Helmeted riot police moved in to guard the building, and office workers were evacuated. Several hundred protesters, some drinking cans of beer, massed in the foyer of the tower, smashing furniture and chanting slogans.
Thirty-five people were arrested, while seven police officers and seven protesters were injured.
The violence came in the first major protest since the government outlined its plans on Oct. 20 to reduce spending by £81-billion ($130-billion) by 2015 to narrow the record budget deficit.
"We may be becoming more Greek and French in our attitude to economic stringency," said Bill Jones, professor of politics at Liverpool Hope University.
"Usually the British are much more culturally phlegmatic. This may be a sign of things to come."
The National Union of Students (NUS), which helped organize the march, blamed the aggressive action on "anarchists" who had hijacked the protest.
Police blamed the damage to property on "a small minority of protesters."
Leanne Johnston, 23, an English and drama student at John Moores University in Liverpool, said the break-in to the tower was carried out by "a group of people that didn't look like the core group of students." The hard-core protesters looked like "punks."
"Whatever the merits of the points they're making, there's absolutely no excuse for a tiny minority to engage in acts of savage and unnecessary brutality," said Boris Johnson, the London Mayor.
"I very much hope the people responsible for these actions will be brought to justice."
Another demonstrator, James Huelin, a 24-year-old civil-engineering student at the University of Bath, was dressed in a suit that appeared to be made of pound and dollar notes.
"The bottom line is it's not fair," he said.
"The choice to go to university should be based on academic ability, not the size of your wallet."
"There may be more instances of this kind but whether the protests will match the level of violence seen around the poll-tax riots in the 1980s remains to be seen," said Wyn Grant, a professor of politics at Warwick University and an expert on protest movements.
After trashing the HQ lobby, demonstrators started a fire outside the building, burning effigies of Mr. Cameron and Nick Clegg, his deputy.
Vastly outnumbered, police were powerless to stop the protesters as they ran amok.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson said later, "This was thuggish, loutish behaviour by criminals and we need to ensure that we have a thorough investigation to bring these criminals in front of a court to answer for their crimes. It's not acceptable. It's an embarrassment for London and an embarrassment for us."
About 50,000 demonstrators yesterday began protesting against plans to cut funding to universities and increase tuition fees. The coalition government plans to allow British universities to charge up to £9,000 ($14,500) a year for tuition, almost triple the current level, as it seeks to cut subsidies to colleges.
It says the higher student fees, financed by government-backed loans, will cover the shortfall and allow Britain's universities to compete against international rivals.
But the orderly demonstration turned ugly when a group of protesters descended on the 27-storey Millbank Tower on the north bank of the River Thames, next to the Tate gallery and close to Parliament, and started smashing windows.
About 30 students managed to get on to the roof of the tower to unfurl a banner that read "No to Cuts," while some threw missiles and sprayed fire extinguishers. Helmeted riot police moved in to guard the building, and office workers were evacuated. Several hundred protesters, some drinking cans of beer, massed in the foyer of the tower, smashing furniture and chanting slogans.
Thirty-five people were arrested, while seven police officers and seven protesters were injured.
The violence came in the first major protest since the government outlined its plans on Oct. 20 to reduce spending by £81-billion ($130-billion) by 2015 to narrow the record budget deficit.
"We may be becoming more Greek and French in our attitude to economic stringency," said Bill Jones, professor of politics at Liverpool Hope University.
"Usually the British are much more culturally phlegmatic. This may be a sign of things to come."
The National Union of Students (NUS), which helped organize the march, blamed the aggressive action on "anarchists" who had hijacked the protest.
Police blamed the damage to property on "a small minority of protesters."
Leanne Johnston, 23, an English and drama student at John Moores University in Liverpool, said the break-in to the tower was carried out by "a group of people that didn't look like the core group of students." The hard-core protesters looked like "punks."
"Whatever the merits of the points they're making, there's absolutely no excuse for a tiny minority to engage in acts of savage and unnecessary brutality," said Boris Johnson, the London Mayor.
"I very much hope the people responsible for these actions will be brought to justice."
Another demonstrator, James Huelin, a 24-year-old civil-engineering student at the University of Bath, was dressed in a suit that appeared to be made of pound and dollar notes.
"The bottom line is it's not fair," he said.
"The choice to go to university should be based on academic ability, not the size of your wallet."
"There may be more instances of this kind but whether the protests will match the level of violence seen around the poll-tax riots in the 1980s remains to be seen," said Wyn Grant, a professor of politics at Warwick University and an expert on protest movements.
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