London, England (CNN) -- A crowd of students marched through central London on Wednesday, disrupting traffic and shouting slogans in a protest against an increase in university tuition. Students also protested in other cities across Britain, including Leeds, Cambridge and Birmingham. Police said there had been 15 arrests in London and one each in Oxford and Glasgow, Scotland. Three of the arrests happened after students filled Whitehall, the street that runs from Trafalgar Square past the prime minister's residence toward Parliament. Police penned the protesters in at either end to try to limit criminal damage, and a line of police in fluorescent yellow vests kept the students from reaching Parliament Square.
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NEW: Police pen student demonstrators in for hours, a protester says
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Students are angry about government plans to allow tuition increases
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A large crowd filled the street near Parliament in London
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Other protests are reported in Leeds, Cambridge and Birmingham
Police said they could not give an estimate of the size of the @placeholder crowd.
They managed to break into a police van inside the containment area in @placeholder after smashing the windshield, spray-painting the sides and trying to topple it.