Police arrested 20 people after violent clashes marred a student demonstration in Manchester.
Greater Manchester Police said they found several packets of razor blades after searching one protester, who was quizzed about the items.
A police spokesman said: "We have intelligence to suggest a number were armed with chef’s knives and one of those arrested was found with a number of razor blades."
All the 20 arrested protesters were men. Thirteen were arrested for public order offences, six for breach of the peace and one for obstructing a public highway.
Two police officers were injured, one suffered a broken finger and another was bitten on his ear.
Several hundred demonstrators ran through the city centre after breaking away from a rally at Platt Fields park.
Around 3,500 had joined the earlier march on Saturday morning along Oxford Road which passed off peacefully.
However, a group of around 500 people left the organised rally and forced their way through police cordons into the city centre.
Shocked shoppers watched on as the protesters ran down some of the major streets in the city - including Quay Street and Deansgate - with the police in pursuit.
Following a number of skirmishes, police on foot and horseback eventually managed to contain the breakaway group on Deansgate, near the Hilton Hotel, for almost an hour.
Comment: Don't let thugs hijack tuition fees protests
In reference to ongoing popular unrest in North Africa, some of the protestors yelled ‘Egypt’ and ‘Tunisia’ as they flouted the pre-planned route.
The demonstrators were eventually allowed to leave in small groups after submitting to a search and giving their details. GMP said 20 people had been arrested.
The official demonstration had been organised by the National Union of Students and University and College Union, starting from the Manchester Museum on Oxford Road.
Senior policemen said the organised march and rally had been largely peaceful, although officers had to intervene when a group of protesters surrounded the NUS president Aaron Porter outside the MMU building and began hurling abuse at him.
Mr Porter, who has been criticised by some students for speaking out publicly against the violent occupation of the Conservative Party offices at a previous march in London, was escorted to safety by police.
The demonstration started peacefully shortly after 10.30am outside Manchester Museum, before heading down Oxford Road to a rally in Platt Fields Park in Fallowfield.
Organised by the NUS, UCU and TUC as part of the 'A Future That Works' campaign, it aimed to highlight the 'triple whammy' of spending cuts affecting young people.
Campaigners say the increase in tution fees and scrapping of the educational maintenance allowance (EMA) and Future Jobs Fund will be particularly damaging to future generations.
Sally Hunt, head of UCU, said: "From sacking lollipop ladies and closing youth clubs to axing college grants and trebling tution fees this government is at war with young people and therefore at war with our future. It is betraying an entire generation."
Graham Smith, chair of Unison's young members' forum, said: "The ConDems have clearly set out to attack young people and the student protests have been a huge inspiration to the unions.
"They show that this movement will not be easily defeated and we will defeat these cuts."
Manchester Central MP Tony Lloyd added: "People say this is not a political generation.
"But the reality is that a lot of people will turn up just to say that what is going on is not just wrong, but immoral."
Trouble flared around 2pm towards the end of the rally when, in an unplanned move, a group of around 500 protestors broke through police to head back up Wilmslow Road towards the city centre.
Protestors clashed with officers as traffic was brought to a standstill and hundreds ran down Wilmslow Road.
Police tactical aid units were brought in to contain protestors near the MRI Hospital while a group of around 200 broke through the police cordon to head into the city centre.
Smaller protests were held in the Arndale Centre and Piccadilly Gardens with another group detained by police for several hours on Deansgate.
Organisers of the protest later condemmed the violence as a distraction from the true purpose of the march.
A spokesperson from UCU said: "We need public support for what's happening with government cuts and I'm not convinced upsetting shoppers in Manchester city centre is the way to do that.
"We should be talking about the damage done by Government cuts not the damage done by a small minority of people - it is very frustrating."
The North West Ambulance Service said it had not been required to deal with any injuries.
Assistant Chief Constable Neil Wain, in charge of policing the event, said: “I'm pleased to say that there was a peaceful march and rally. It was good natured, and there were no issues.
"I would like to praise the organisers of this event for the approach they have taken and the way the worked very hard to ensure the event passed off peacefully.”
“Unfortunately, a small group of individuals, approximately 150-200 decided to break away from this protest and move into the city centre, where they engaged in serious disorder and violence. They put themselves and others at risk.
“As soon as we were able to do, we contained this small group of individuals. This was for the purposes of their safety and others, but also to prevent further major disruption to the community.”
The MEN covered today's protest in a live blog with reporters Jon MacPherson, Amy Glendinning and Pete Bainbridge. You can replay coverage of the protest in the box below.
To send in your pictures of the march, or if you want to report anything from the march, you can email newsdesk@men-news.co.uk or tweet us @mennewsdesk
Click on the grey box below to launch our live blog.
Comments
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The government should consider introducing a windfall tax on the trade unions to help pay for the costs of these demos.
they can afford to pump millions of pounds into the Labour Party, so they should pay something to the council tax payers of Manchester who will foot the bill for this indulgence
If the police had any sense they would be joining them instead of "maintainng order".
The time has come to pay the piper? Gone are the days that students get smashed nightly on the taxpayers backs.Its now time for the students to pay for their education .And time has come that students get a easy ride on the backs of "Dumbed down education".
If you get things for free you take it for granted ,but if you pay for something you look after it..TIME TO PAY AND LOOK AFTER THE BENEFITS.
protesting no longer viable method of be heard in this country, i don't know why people bother? do your protesting at the ballot box. protesters remind me of manchester united fans that wear them green and yellow scarfs yet still renew their season tickets every season, crazy!
AGITATE! EDUCATE! ORGANISE!
great so the rally starts at manchester museum then onto platt fields just in time for opening at the bars and pubs in nearby fallowfield for all the skint and hardup students
"til"...."jab" ???? Nice to know the eduction system hard working people pay for is not being wasted then Sam !! God help us all !!!
How did they get up from bed. Stop matching about something you lot know nothing about. We have had to stop spending after the none stop spending by Labour
Why are you covering your face? - you don't look dangerous, just stupid.
Having watched this chaos on sky news GMP have lost the plot, yet again the top brass have not planned for the unexpected,this is what happens when you promote and ask the opinions of people who have nt got a clue.!
Wade in with your tasers and telescopic Batons.Student Mobsters with faces covered.
Shame the police couldn't bill the organisers as they do the football for crowd control.
Point of order Mr Evening News editor:
How can some of the protesters have run amok down Deansgate following the demonstration at Platt Fields? Did they get the bus into town or take a taxi?
Bill people for exercising their democratic rights? Why not just privatise protest. Stupid comments.
It is our right to protest to protect jobs and services, to protest against the targeting of the poor and vulnerable thropugh unjust cuts, to protest against those who avoid their tax burden whilst we pay ours, to protest against education become the privilege of the wealthy.
Our nation fought for this right and you lot would destroy it. You know nothing of history.
Pathetic BRITISH PUBLIC its now a crime to protest! you lot deserve everything you are going to get. CUTS, CUTS, and MISERY.
And now the Tories have got the nerve to blame the unions, what about the BANKERS laughing into their champagne.
In times of desperate need, when essential service's are being cut or abolished, these bunch of morons decide to cost the taxpayer millions of pounds in the police operation that ensued; where do these idiots come from, I ask? They achieved absolutely nothing other than gaining the disdain of the general public and lots of overtime for the police. Get a job and pay for your own education, you're as bad as those who choose to live off benefits instead of getting a job. Scrounger's!
I Witnessed this mob atacking the Vodaphone shop, Topshop and Next in the Arndale, the ring leaders at the front with their faces partly covered or the ones with balaclavas on were just trouble making scum and in my opinion were nothing to do with protests over cuts.
If they closed all these polytech psuedo-universities and removed the pointless courses then the fees issue wouldn't be a problem.
University education has now evolved into being perceived by today's younger generations as being, like most things, an unquestioned entitlement to a good time.
Why should the taxpayer pay for people to go to university for 3 years of partying only for it to end with them getting a job that they could have got anyway without a pointless degree from a low rate university paid for by the taxpayer?
The official rally failed to inspire or channel the anger and energies of many of the people there, just TUC types lecturing the crowd. No-one under 30 given a platform, all official bigwaigs from official organisations. Very lacklustre performance from the TUC.
This breakaway group left the official rally, and were peaceful and non-threatening until the police made various attempts to kettle them.
Sally Hunt and Graham Smith should keep their mouths shut. I can't believe that you are printing the rubbish they are spouting. I would love to get them two on question time and show them up for what they are.
I wanted to take my nephews to the reopening of MOSI today but read about the protests and thought, if it gets out of hand I don't want to be anywhere around manchester. I can plan for events and make alternate arrangements but it sounds like the NUS and GMP have lost some a lot of support today
At least people in Egypt have the balls to take to the streets. Most people here just complain amongst themselves and criticise those that do protest. Every citizen has the right to protest, hence the tax payer foots the policing bill, or do you all want to live in a dictatorship?
I do not condone violence but mass peaceful protests are the way to get the message across. It isn't just about education cuts. Plus students have had to PAY for the past 10 years so don't know where all this taxpayer wasting nonsense comes from as they have to pay it back. As it stands for future generations £27,000 is A LOT of money to stump up for 3 years. Youre going to end up with a generation of kids with debts the size of mortgages when they finish university.
Also not all students are wasters. A friend of mine is at Uni studying Law and is struggling like hell, is up till all hours studying, writing papers. No money to go out boozing. I think most of you still have a 1970's/1980's view of free university students, and even then most of them were not larger louts.
I suspect some of you will stop your drum banging when you are made redundant, lose your house, get no help and find there are no jobs to apply for or none that are paying enough for you to pay your bills. None of us caused what is happening (unless you happen to work for a reckless investment bank) yet why are WE the people being expected to pay for the mistakes of the elite. Bankers are STILL being paid obscene amounts of money and bonuses whilst we all struggle with pay cuts/freezes, job losses, rising costs and taxes. We even have bloody heads of banks refusing to apologise for the mess they have caused and think not being able to afford a heli taxi anymore is hardship. These people really do live in cloud cuckoo land along with the 18 millionaires running this country, who have no mandate to govern as the majority of the voting population who did vote voted other.
I still do not understand how putting thousands more people on the dole is going to save the economy. Are we all supposed to go get a job at Ryan Air? Well who will be able to afford to go on a holiday when the cuts really start to bite eh??
I think we should get used to demos like this. A 3-fold hike in tuition fees just to bail out the banks is not justified. We make a big fuss over MPs with dubious expenses (quite rightly) but why not an even bigger fuss over what the banks have done? I am all for high bonuses when banks get it right, but since this is given to justify a "high risk" job, where is the accountability when things go wrong? The government should be imposing retrospective negative (about 500% of salary) bonuses for the high-flyers to pay for mess they caused. If this isn't done, the banks will never learn. Until this happens, carry on with demos and unrests as far as I am concerned. The honest, hard-working, modestly paid man has less to lose at the end of the day.
I was on the demo today. It was mostly peaceful and I am proud to have been on it. I'm glad Aaron Porter got booed away as he has shown no leadership whatsoever and like many in the NUS, seems more bothered with his Labour Party career. If it acted as a warning to the other unions that we need action not just heavy rhetoric then good.
The reason people broke off, and it was much much more than 150-200, was because the union speeches went on for too long and didn't give solutions. As young people we know what's happening and we know it isn't fair. We want action. I didn't cause this mess and I am not prepared suffer because of it and be attacked by the media and police when I complain about this injustice.
There was minimal vandalism the only violence I saw was that coming from the police as usual. I asked them why they were filming people, including young children only to be screamed at and threatened with arrest. Overall though it was a very positive day and was wonderful to be marching with people of all ages and backgrounds and share our experiences, grievances and hopes.