Tens of thousands of students marched out of their schools across Spain today, protesting broad education cuts that have caused teacher layoffs, overcrowded campuses and unheated classrooms. Tensions were highest in Barcelona, where police and protesters clashed as more than 30,000 people took to the streets.

 

Agence France-Presse reports:

Protestors marched through the streets in various towns after some camped the night in universities in a movement dubbed Primaveraestudiantil ("Student Spring") and Tomalafacultad ("Seize the faculty") on Twitter.

The national students' union said marches were called in about 40 cities and towns across the country to protest the austerity measures they say are disrupting classes and cutting teaching jobs.

"We did not create this crisis but we are paying for it in every sense," said the union's leader Tohil Delgado ahead of Wednesday's marches, saying classes and thousands of teaching jobs have been cut.