MONTREAL, May 16 (UPI) -- More than a hundred masked people stormed a Montreal university Thursday trying to stop classes amid an ongoing protest over tuition hikes, students said.
For three months, university and community college students have been staging daily protests against the Quebec Liberal provincial government's plan to phase in tuition increases over seven years.
The government has made concessions and the education minister has resigned although militant student leaders have said they won't accept tuition hikes and vowed to maintain a boycott of classes.
At Wednesday's altercation, an unidentified law student at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal, told the QMI Agency shouting protesters barged into the building and spray-painted graffiti on walls.
"They screamed at us to leave the class, but we stayed," the student told the news agency. "They were threatening and violent. There were altercations."
There was no immediate report of injuries or arrests.
Various media reports on the dispute that began Feb. 14 have suggested the student movement is being orchestrated by professional anarchists.
Regardless, Quebec has the lowest tuition fees of any province, Statistics Canada has reported.
In 2011, Quebec students paid $2,519 per year for tuition and fees, compared with the national average of $5,366. Quebec's fees would still be lowest after the proposed increases.
