THOUSANDS of city students took to the streets of Liverpool to protest against university cuts and rises in tuition fees.

Police said the noon march of around 3,000 demonstrators yesterday was mainly peaceful, but ambulance bosses last night blamed the city-centre protest on delays in getting to patients.

And an 18-year-old student was arrested for egg throwing as protesters, led by ring leaders wielding megaphones, made a failed bid, due to a heavy police presence, to get to the city’s Conservative headquarters in Hanover Street.

And around 3pm, three hours after the Facebook-organised protest began, around 200 remaining demonstrators returned to the University of Liverpool’s Guild of Students building in Mount Pleasant.

On arrival about three dozen students took to the roof using workmen’s ladders from scaffolding and let off a flare to the delight of the crowds below.

As a precaution, student union officials then closed the building meaning a production by the university’s drama society could not go ahead.