Protestors clash with police in Sydney

Thousands of Australian anti-war protesters, many of them students in school uniforms, pelted Sydney police with bottles and chairs grabbed from cafes today, and then hurled more bottles outside the office of Prime Minister John Howard.

The protest was the most violent yet against Australia’s involvement in coalition attacks on Iraq.

Some of the demonstrators said they were as young as 10 years old.

Police in riot gear arrested at least 45 people, and one officer was slightly injured when an object thrown by the protesters hit him on the head.

The violence broke out after two separate groups of protesters merged outside Sydney’s Town Hall and then streamed to the city’s Hyde Park, where they chanted anti-war slogans and taunted police.

Students clambered into a fountain in the park and hung a banner proclaiming “Books not bombs”.

The protesters later headed to Howard’s Sydney office, where they again began hurling bottles at police. At least one protester, who suffered a gashed face, was injured.

Some of the protesters said they were appalled that violence had broken out during the demonstration.

Earlier, hundreds of protesters burned American flags, set off firecrackers and chanted “No war!” in a noisy demonstration close to the US Consulate.

In Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city, more than 1,500 rowdy students marched through the central business district protesting against the war.

At one point, mounted police had to force their way through a small group of students staging a sit-in on the road.

In the southern city of Adelaide, about 800 students carrying banners and chanting anti-war messages marched down the city’s main street, disrupting traffic.

The Australian government’s decision to send 2,000 troops to fight with coalition forces in Iraq has sparked mass demonstrations in recent weeks, with hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets on one weekend earlier this month.

Until today, all the protests had been peaceful.