STUDENTS stormed past police to occupy Parliament Square yesterday as the nine-grand-fees generation kick started a campaign for free education.

Red flares were lit and chants of “Tory scum, here we come” rang out as thousands surged down Whitehall towards Westminster.

They were met with a ring of steel but tore down the fences around Parliament Square after a brief scuffle with the police.

Hundreds flooded onto the square when officers fled but most finished the largely peaceful march at a rally further down the road.

Student spokeswoman Deborah Hermanns said the march was “just the beginning” of a new movement to scrap tuition fees.

“What’s different about this demo is that it’s proactive,” she said.

“We’re not against anything — we’re calling for free education and a complete change in the way education is run in this country.”

Yesterday’s march was the opening salvo for another spate of occupations at universities and colleges across Britain on December 3.

Student marches through towns and cities are also being organised by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts to take place three days later.

The wave of action is being launched as the first group of students who paid £9,000 fees prepare to graduate next spring.

Warwick University student Callum Cant said the prospect of graduating with debts of over £40,000 had brought students onto the streets.

He said: “When we graduate we’re going to face a very different situation to a lot of generations before us because we’re going to be carrying so much more debt.

“That’s when trebling tuition fees in 2010 becomes a concrete weight for all of us.”

Labour MP Diane Abbott and Green MP Caroline Lucas — who both voted against trebling fees four years ago — left Parliament to address the rally.

Ms Abbott said £9,000 fees would have stopped her going to university and vowed to reintroduce grants for poor college students if elected London mayor.

And Ms Lucas called the fees system “economically illiterate as well as morally bankrupt.

“I think the government is pretty stupid,” said Ms Lucas to huge cheers.

“Even if they are ideologically committed to this wrong-headed policy, we’ve just seen figures that show three-quarters of students won’t be able to pay off their debt in 30 years.”

Students flooded back onto Parliament Square following the rally and some then targeted government departments and high street shops.

Orange paint bombs were thrown at the entrance to the Business Department that has tried to privatise student debt.

And National Union of Students (NUS) officers arrived at their offices yesterday morning to find “scabs” spray painted across the entrance after sabbatical officers pulled their backing for the march.

There were also reports of arrests when a group of students descended on a John Lewis store as sporadic protests continued into the evening.

At least two people were arrested after attempting to charge into the Tory Party headquarters with wheelie bins.

And photos posted on Twitter show around 100 people staging a sit down protest outside New Scotland Yard to demand they release a student allegedly snatched earlier.

Analysis with Luke James: A new generation takes to the streets

THE creative chants, satirical placards and the sound of the samba band were all familiar on yesterday’s march.

But many of the faces were not.

Because this was a new generation of activists who did not fight the trebling of tuition fees in 2010 — but have felt the effects ever since.

And with graduation fast approaching for the first group facing unprecedented £40,000 debts, they’re getting angry, active and ready to get even with Nick Clegg.

Not just by casting the Lib Dems into oblivion at the ballot box in May but with a grassroots campaign on campuses across Britain.

Mexican students also made their mark on this demonstration.

Dozens joined the march to show solidarity with the uprisings sparked by the murder of 43 students in Mexico.

They held flags with the faces of some of their murdered peers high and won huge support.

Con-Dems beware — the student movement is broad, brave and looks set to come of age.