Bins Burned, Street Protests in Spain Student Strike

Protesters set up burning barricades at a top Spanish university and thousands demonstrated across the country on Thursday in a strike against education reforms that has seen scores of arrests.

A police spokeswoman told Agence France Presse that officers arrested one person on Thursday morning "for possession of flammable material" after bins were burned at Madrid's Complutense university campus.

Television pictures showed protesters storming a university building on Thursday morning, letting off a red smoke bomb. A video posted online by El Pais newspaper showed police beating other protesters with batons to disperse them.

Police also provisionally released 54 people who were arrested on Wednesday, the first of two days of the strike. They were charged with burning bins and occupying offices at the campus in the west of Madrid, the spokeswoman said.

Early on Thursday afternoon, several hundred high school pupils and university students marched noisily but peacefully in central Madrid in a demonstration against the crisis education reforms.

Hundreds also demonstrated in Barcelona and other cities including Bilbao, where police said three people were arrested for "public disorder" during the protest.

The national Students' Union said 70 demonstrations were held across the country.

"No to education cuts," yelled protesters in Madrid, calling for Education Minister Jose Ignacio Wert to resign.

The government's spending cuts have hit schools and universities among other public services, while higher education fees have been increased.

Wert has also led an unpopular reform of the school syllabus.

"It makes me sad because they are not giving everyone the opportunity to study," said one demonstrator, 18-year-old pupil Karim Martinez.

"They are raising fees and cutting scholarships. A lot of parents do not have the money to pay for university."

The Students' Union said in a statement on Thursday that two million young people had abandoned their classes across Spain.

Spain's conservative government launched spending cuts in 2012 that aimed to save 150 billion euros ($206 billion) to stabilize the public finances of the euro zone's fourth-biggest economy.