Student unrest 'unacceptable': British PM

2010-11-11 08:27

Seoul - British Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday condemned as "completely unacceptable" the actions of students who stormed his party's London headquarters in protest over plans to increase tuition fees.

Cameron said those involved were "bent on violence and destruction" and should face prosecution, while also describing the police response as "not adequate" in a round of television interviews.

"Of course people have a right to protest peacefully but I saw pictures of people who were bent on violence and on destruction and on destroying property and that is completely unacceptable," he told the BBC.

"And we need to make sure that that behaviour does not go unpunished and we need to make sure that we don't, as the police put it, see scenes like that on London's streets again."

Speaking from Seoul, where he is attending the summit of Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies, he said he followed the unrest on television and had telephoned colleagues to check the safety of those in the building.

In chaotic scenes, thousands of people besieged the Conservative offices near the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday, leaving 14 people hurt, half of them police.

The unrest came as tens of thousands of people marched through central London in protest at plans to roughly treble tuition fees for university students.

- AFP