Royal car attack

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall were travelling in a Rolls Royce Phantom VI when they came under attack from the student fees protesters.

It should have been a relaxing night out for the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall at one of their favourite events on the royal calendar.

Instead, their scheduled 10-minute car journey from Clarence House to the London Palladium turned into one of the biggest royal security lapses in recent years as their police protection officers inexplicably drove them into the heart of the protesting mob.

The result was a terrifying, sustained attack on the couple's claret Rolls-Royce which left the Duchess, in particular, badly shaken and the police facing an inquiry into how they could have put the heir to the throne in such danger.

There had been plenty of warning of the trouble brewing on the streets of central London for more than five hours before the royal couple began their journey to the Royal Variety Performance.

Pitched battles between protesters and police, which had started in Parliament Square, were moving north towards Trafalgar Square and Regent Street, putting the rioters directly in the path of the Prince's planned route.

Exactly why his royalty protection officers failed to switch to another route was unclear last night, but the result was that by 7.15pm, five minutes after they left Clarence House, the Prince and the Duchess found themselves trapped in the middle of a riot.

Their 1977 Phantom VI, a gift to the Queen from the Car Association to celebrate her silver jubilee, has toughened glass but is designed to give the public the best possible view of members of the Royal family, rather than being an armoured vehicle. Katharina Chaffey, a 17-year-old student from Twickenham, saw what happened as the car tried to make its way up Regent Street.

"There were hundreds of people walking up the road," she said. "We saw a car with a police escort and we wondered who it was, then people started shouting 'That's Charles, that's Charles'.

"Someone threw a bottle at the car, then someone else threw a milkshake that hit his window, which was wound down a little bit.

"Other people were throwing burgers, someone had a graffiti can, and people were just throwing rubbish at the car, anything they could get their hands on."

One witness described how the Prince had wound down his window to try to distract the protesters by waving as he tried to protect his wife.

Adnan Nazir, a 23-year-old podiatrist, said: "A few people turned around and started hitting the windows. People started kicking the car.

"Charles got her on the floor and put his hands on her. He was waving and giving the thumbs up. It was just a surreal thing. It was completely manic."

The Prince, wearing a dinner jacket, raised the window again after a police outrider shouted: "Sir, put the window up." Moments later the window shattered after being hit by another missile, said by one witness to have been a brick.

Two police motorcyclists travelling ahead of the three-car convoy tried to push rioters to the sides, but as the royal car, together with a police Jaguar backup and a Ford Galaxy transporting staff came under further attack, protesters simply skirted around the motorcyclists to carry on hurling missiles.

One reportedly got close enough to try to open the locked door of the royal car.

It is believed a well organised group of demonstrators had split off from the main protests in Westminster and headed to Oxford Street to target Topshop - just 50 yards from the Palladium - which was badly damaged.

The clothing chain, owned by Sir Philip Green, has been the focus of anti-capitalist protests in recent days by people angry at Sir Philip's tax status, suggesting many of the rioters had little to do with the student fees protest.

Jenalyn Masalunga, 16, from Victoria, central London, said: "People were kicking the cars and putting plastic bins in the road to try to block their path.

"You could see Charles and Camilla inside, they looked shaken." While the Prince, who was once shot at during a tour of Australia, managed to keep his composure, the Duchess, appeared frightened.

One picture showed her open-mouthed as thugs banged on the windows of the car with their fists, shouting "off with their heads". Another witness said: "There were a few people there who were very aggressive, covering their faces."

According to one unconfirmed report, the three cars in the royal convoy became separated at one point, as the protesters managed to block their path. A senior royal source said: "The vehicles were travelling very slowly. We are not aware of them becoming separated."

As the Prince's car finally turned right off Regent Street, Ruhan Ahmed, a 20-year-old student from East London, said he saw at least 50 people chasing the car. Paul Synnot, 27, the head doorman at Aqua, a Japanese bar and restaurant opposite the Palladium in Argyll Street, said: "The car pulled up outside the Palladium and I heard a loud bang. I looked across and the back of the car was covered in what looked like blue paint. It was spread across the window." A policeman described the car as looking "pretty beaten up".

By the time the Prince and the Duchess got out, they had regained their composure and wore relaxed smiles.

Their badly damaged car, however, was quickly driven away, together with the other two cars in their convoy, which had also been damaged. At 11pm the couple left the theatre, and after the Duchess gamely joked that "there's a first time for everything" the couple were ushered into a waiting police van, after their bodyguards had decided they were not taking any more chances.