London: A Tory backbencher has expressed shock over the recent student protest and attack on a Rolls-Royce carrying Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, and demanded an independent inquiry into what he called a major security lapse.
The student protests were against a government decision to introduce higher university fees.
Conservative backbencher Mark Pritchard has called for a full independent inquiry into the failures that exposed the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall to the rioters in one of the worst royal security breaches for decades, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
"This was an incident that was so very serious - and could have been even more serious," Mr Pritchard said. Thousands of angry youths clashed with riot police and tried to storm the Treasury after the coalition government's narrow victory in a vote on the tuition fees.
Clarence House, the royal couple's official residence, would not comment on reports that Camilla was hit in the ribs by a stick in the melee. ''
"But what we are saying is that both their royal highnesses were unharmed and neither received any medical attention," a spokesman said.
During the rampage, the royal couple looked shocked as demonstrators broke a window of their car and spattered it with paint as they drove to a theatre in London.
Prime Minister David Cameron said he was "very concerned" by the security lapse and that those who attacked the car must be punished.
"We want to learn the lessons from that but, above all, we want to make sure that the people who behaved in these appalling ways feel the full force of the law of the land," Cameron said.
Scotland Yard chief Sir Paul Stephenson said armed royal protection officers had shown "real restraint" in not firing on protesters.
Police arrested 33 people. At least 43 protesters and 12 police officers were injured in the clashes.