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Thousands of demonstrators besieged 30 Millbank, running riot through the 1960s office building near parliament, which houses the Conservative Party.
Vastly outnumbered, police were powerless to stop the protesters smashing their way through the entire three-sided glass frontage, storming in and wrecking the lobby.

Running amok, several activists reached the roof of the six-storey riverside block and hurled a fire extingusher at police below as students crammed into the courtyard, torching a bonfire of placards and surging forward.

One woman police officer was seen being led away from the scene with blood on her face.
Fourteen people were injured, including seven police officers, a police spokesman said. Thirty-two people were arrested for offences including criminal damage and trespass.

Students were marching through London in protest at the university tuition fee proposals Conservatives-Liberal Democrat coalition government, which came to power in May.
Police put the number of demonstrators at 20,000, while organisers said it was nearer to 50,000.

Facing suggestions that officers had lost control of the situation, London’s police chief Paul Stephenson promised a full investigation.

“This level of violence was totally unexpected, we need to ask ourselves why,” the Scotland Yard commissioner said.-AFP