'Hell broke out:' South African police, students clash
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JOHANNESBURG- One of South Africa's top universities descended into violence on Monday, with police firing tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon at stone-throwing students who are locked in a bitter national dispute with administrators and the government over demonstrators' demands for free education.
Stun grenades boomed and gunshots crackled as police cleared protesters from a main plaza at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, the most prominent site of a student movement that recently shut other universities and prompted official warnings that badly needed medics, engineers and other skilled workers might not be able to graduate this year.
"Hell broke out," said Jo Seoka, an Anglican bishop who described the pandemonium that erupted as students hurled rocks at private security guards blocking the entrance to the Great Hall and police vehicles rumbled forward to confront them. Seoka, who joined an earlier student march, said police had "militarized" the campus, and he criticized them for not wearing IDs on their uniforms that would make them accountable.
As police helicopters circled, some protesters spilled into city streets. A bus was set on fire, and thick smoke billowed into the air.
