Charles caught up in London riots

The clashes, described as the worst on the streets of the British capital since the 1990 poll tax riot, involved tens of thousands of people.

Masked rioters battled police outside the Houses of Parliament as a student protest turned violent following the government's narrow victory in a vote in the House of Commons.

Protesters then started fires and smashed windows at the Treasury and the Supreme Court as well as attacking shops in Oxford Street and climbing on a statue of wartime prime minister Sir Winston Churchill.

Prince Charles's limousine was attacked by rioters in Regent Street as he travelled to a theatre in central London, but he and his wife Camilla were "unharmed", his Clarence House residence said.

Protesters cracked a window and splashed white paint on the boot.

An eyewitness said Charles was trying to calm the demonstrators down and described how the unruffled prince "beamed" as protesters smashed bottles on the car, a 1977 Rolls Royce Phantom VI.

"The Jaguar behind Prince Charles's car got really heavily laid into, but people were more hesitant to do it. They were smashing bottles on it, but he remained very calm. He was beaming - absolutely beaming. Camilla was smiling as well. They were trying to calm people down, and he was just trying to have a chat with them through the window."

Police said tens of thousands joined the protests, including groups of hooded and masked youths who were at the centre of the violence. Police had warned that, like in previous student demonstrations, violent groups could hijack the rallies.

The BBC said 37 people had been injured and 22 people arrested. Several protesters suffered head wounds, one being taken away on a makeshift stretcher.

Prime minister David Cameron condemned the violence.

"It is clear that a minority of protesters came determined to provoke violence, attack the police and cause as much damage to property as possible," he said.

"It is shocking and regrettable that the car carrying the Prince of Wales [Prince Charles] and the Duchess of Cornwall was caught up and attacked in the violence," he added.
Outside the Houses of Parliament, 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, and smashed the doors and windows of the Treasury.

The clashes were believed to be the worst political violence in London since the 1990 poll tax riot which helped to end Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher's decade in power.

Analysts said there could be more to come as hundreds of thousands of public sector workers lose their jobs.

"There will probably be serious injuries, if not deaths, if this level of protest is replicated in the new year by militant unions," said Carina O'Reilly, European security analyst with IHS Jane's.
Inside the House of Commons, the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition 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.

Of the 57 Liberal Democrat MPs, 28 voted with the government, while 21 voted against.

The basic level of fees will now climb to 6,000 pounds ($9,600) with an upper limit of 9,000 pounds ($14,400). The current cap is 3,290 pounds ($5,270).

The proposal to raise fees has exposed deep tensions within the Liberal Democrats, putting the strain on their coalition with the larger Conservative party which came to power following the general election in May.

Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg's Lib Dems had vowed to phase out tuition fees altogether if it won the election.

The coalition suffered its first resignations over policy when two Lib Dem parliamentary aides to ministers and one Conservative quit their posts in order to vote against the plans.

The Lib Dem u-turn outraged students who voted for the centrist party, and has sparked a series of demonstrations over the past month which have turned violent.

One protester, Andrea Baptiste, 18, from London, said Mr Clegg was "a liar and a snake".

"To raise fees to 9,000 pounds a year just creates serious social divisions," she said.

A defiant Mr Clegg dismissed opponents of the plans as "dreamers" and insisted it was reasonable to make students pay more for their education at a time of deep cuts to public spending.

The rise in fees is also supported by the majority of universities.

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."
Julyan Phillips, 23, a student at Goldsmiths College in London, who had blood pouring from a cut on his head, said: "I was on the front line. I walked up to the police, had my hands behind my back."

"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 was demonstrating because "education is a right, not a privilege".

Superintendent Julia Pendry of the Metropolitan Police said it was "absolutely obvious" that people had come to London "with the intention of committing violent disorder, not coming for peaceful protest."

"There has been a continued unprovoked attack by protesters," she said.

Protests also took place in other cities, including Newcastle in north-east England.