Blood Spilt At Second Senate House Protest

UPDATE: A total of 45 arrests have been confirmed at the scene of the protest, with more expected. Students have been seen banging on the sides of police vans in an attempt to determine where arrested students were being taken.

Students have accused the police of violence for the second day in a row during ongoing clashes with the police.

A scheduled protest named “cops off campus” ironically put a lot more cops on campus today, in a situation that descended into bloodshed.

Gower Street was lined on both sides with roughly 30 police vans sent down to UCL in order to prevent further disturbances similar to yesterday‘s explosive battle between students and coppers.

The fuzz

We talked to Cameron, a film studies student at Birkbeck College, who said he had been disgusted by the events he’d witnessed in the two hours he’d been at the protest. “As far as I could tell, the police initiated the violence”, he said, indicating the substantial amount of blood on the concrete outside Euston Square tube station. “The sheer amount of police officers here is really threatening, too.”

Blood on the floor

He further remarked of the entire situation “This is so fucked up.”

When we asked a police officer at the scene for his version of events, he explained that the overwhelming police presence, whilst seemingly excessive for the few protesters that remained at around 5pm, was entirely necessary when there had been “around 300 to 400 protesters earlier”. In response to our questions about possible evidence for arrests, he revealed that a large amount of serious infractions had been committed, including breach of the peace, obstruction of the highway and even the throwing of missiles.

Police kettling the few protesters left

The mood of the protest was somewhat lightened by one witty student protester who, when a police officer’s hat blew off in the wind, shouted “Why don’t you just hit the wind?!” Can one get arrested for illegal banter..?