Emergency brain surgery for student ‘hit on head with police truncheon’

Gallery: Students riot again over tuition fees

He was one of 44 people, including six police officers, treated in hospital after London's most violent night of student rioting over fees. A further 14 people, including six police, were treated by paramedics at the scene.

Police arrested 34 people during extraordinary scenes of disorder which spilled out of Parliament Square as mobs rampaged across the West End.

Scotland Yard said today it had launched an inquiry into the incident involving Mr Meadows and had referred the matter to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

His mother, Susan Meadows, 55, an English literature lecturer at Roehampton University, said: "He was hit on the head by a police truncheon. He said it was the hugest blow he ever felt in his life. The surface wound wasn't very big but three hours after the blow, he suffered bleeding to the brain. He survived surgery and is in the recovery room."

Mr Meadows was with friends including two lecturers, Nina Power, a colleague of his mother's, and Peter Hallward, a philosophy lecturer at Kingston University. As they tried to leave the area where protesters were being held in a police "kettling" operation, the second-year undergraduate was apparently struck. He phoned his mother, who was also at the protest in a different area.

She said: "He said he had been hit on the head and was bleeding. I got out of the kettle and met him and he told me all about it. He knew he had to go to hospital but he didn't initially know how bad it was.

"The policeman offered to get him an ambulance but he was in shock and didn't know how serious it was."

She said he had been trying to get out of the "kettle" because police had announced people who were obviously not troublemakers would be allowed to leave.

His father, artist and writer Matthew Meadows, 62, said the family had been "desperately upset". He added: "I am pleased to say it is looking much better. It was a miracle an ambulance was close by. He is a very peaceful boy — the Met's aggression was disturbing."

Anna Stumfl, 19, claimed she was struck on the head by an officer with a baton. She said: "People were pushing from behind. I put my hands up saying, I can't move back' and then the police started charging. I just knelt down and tried to protect myself. I had my eyes shut, I was so scared. A horse hit me in the face, and then I was hit on the top of my head."

Mayor Boris Johnson said today: "It is surprising and regrettable that people's first instinct is to blame police... it was not just a small minority of people who came to London determined to cause mayhem, but a large number of agitators who were determined to cause the maximum possible trouble and provocation, and they succeeded.

"We could have water cannon. We could have baton charges. We could have a different type of democracy. We could have many more broken heads of young people in London today. I don't think that is what people want to see in this country." Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said 2,800 officers were deployed on the streets and the operation had not been "undercooked". Peter Smyth, chairman of the Met Police Federation, said officers had shown "courage and dedication". He said: "This has been a battle for democracy which almost reached the doors of Parliament. And had every officer not possessed and demonstrated outstanding endurance and commitment to upholding the rule of law, it would have been lost."

Gallery: Students riot again over tuition fees

12pm: Thousands assemble at the University of London Union in Malet Street, Bloomsbury, for a march on Parliament.

1.30pm: Protesters march quickly down the Mall towards Buckingham Palace and also towards Parliament Square.

1.50pm: A group, including
14-year-old boys, bursts through police lines blocking the crowd from the square and storm towards the entrance of the House of Commons.

2.10pm: First major flashpoint as protesters shepherded to one side of the square surge at police, throwing bits of fencing, bottles of urine and sticks.

2.30pm: Police use horses to charge protesters who have moved to Victoria Street, pinning them against a fence near Westminster Abbey. Rioters throw fireworks, smoke bombs and wooden poles.

5pm: Frustration builds among protesters "kettled" in the square, some of whom launch fresh attacks on police with scaffolding poles, metal fencing and breezeblocks.

5.40pm: Around 500 activists attending a rally on Victoria Embankment greet news of the vote with boos and throw paint bombs at buses.

7pm: Rioters use a makeshift battering ram to break through a door of the Treasury building. They are forced out again by riot squad. Another group smashes windows of the Supreme Court.

7.15pm: A Rolls-Royce carrying Prince Charles and Camilla is attacked in Regent Street.

8pm: Rioters attack TopShop in Oxford Street.

9.30pm: Peaceful protesters are slowly allowed to leave Parliament Square. Police begin to drive the remaining demonstrators across Westminster Bridge.