imcrookonit
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Charles and Camilla's car attacked as student fees protest turns violent
A car carrying Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, and his wife Camilla was attacked on Thursday by protesters in London demonstrating against higher student fees, a spokesman for the prince said.
"We can confirm that Their Royal Highnesses' car was attacked by protesters on the way to their engagement at the London Palladium this evening, but Their Royal Highnesses are unharmed," the spokesman said. He did not elaborate.
The car carrying the royals later arrived at the venue where they were to watch a variety performance.
Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, react in horror as their car is attacked by angry mob in London.
Television footage showed the Bentley limousine splattered with white paint with damage to one of its rear passenger-side windows.
Police chief superintendent Julia Pendry who is in charge of policing the protest that turned violent said the car was attacked around Oxford Circus, a busy shopping district in the heart of London.
"I can't tell you the specifics...and whether the [protesters] were actually trying to have contact with the prince we're not sure of," she told reporters.
Violent protests ... a flare is thrown at police.
"But what did happen was that some people made suggestions to him and were kicking his vehicle," she said.
Masked rioters battled police outside parliament as Britain’s coalition government survived its biggest test yet in the vote to hike university tuition fees.
Dozens of officers and demonstrators were wounded as the protest in the heart of London turned violent following the government’s narrow victory in a vote in parliament.
British riot police clash with protesters
The government suffered its first resignations over policy and the plans to raise fees exposed the deep strains within the seven-month-old coalition.
The government’s majority was cut by three-quarters as MPs voted by 323 to 302 to raise the cap on annual tuition fees at English universities from 2012.
The basic level of fees will now climb to £6000 ($9680), with an upper limit of £9000. The current cap is £3290.
Demonstrator Anna Campbell, a 19-year-old studying French and Russian at Sheffield University, cried after hearing the result of the vote.
"I’m so angry, but this is not the end," she said. "It’s just the beginning, we are going to keep fighting."
Outside the Houses of Parliament, hardcore activists rained missiles on police protecting the building and clashed with police at other points around Parliament Square, with several officers and demonstrators wounded.
Flares, sticks, metal fences, rocks, snooker balls and paint bombs were among the missiles hurled at police in a battle that lasted hours.
Hooded youths repeatedly attacked police lines, torched benches and a security guard box in the square, smashed the doors and windows of the Treasury, or finance ministry, and vandalised a statue of wartime prime minister Winston Churchill.
The iconic red telephone boxes outside parliament, used in countless tourist pictures, were wrecked.
Several protesters suffered head wounds, one being taken away on a makeshift stretcher.
Julyan Phillips, 23, a student at Goldsmiths College in London, had blood pouring from a cut on his head.
"The guys who were next to me were pushing a metal fence towards them but a policeman decided to lash out at me, instead, with a baton," he said.
He said he was demonstrating because "education is a right, not a privilege".
At least 22 protesters and nine police officers were injured, while nine people were arrested.
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