MANCHESTER students seized a second university building yesterday after a violent clampdown by campus security.

Dozens of students initiated a “secondary occupation” at the University of Manchester in solidarity with colleagues who had been brutally grabbed and threatened with punches to the face.

The original Free Education MCR sit-in started last Wednesday in protest over national austerity measures, for free education and in defence of workers’ rights.

Philosophy student Mac Law was one of the students manhandled by security as he attempted to join the occupation on Monday evening.

He told the Star that together with a group of friends he climbed onto the roof to enter the occupied spaces through a back door.

“Security came rushing over, they grabbed three of my friends.

“One of my friends made it to the steps where the back door is and then he was grabbed and pulled down the steps.

“Then two of my friends were grabbed and held against the wall.

“I ran through and was told that if I ran any further they would not be afraid to use force.

Mr Las insisted on going ahead and was held back by a security guard shouting “I will punch you, I will punch you in the face.”

“He said he would not be afraid to drop me, was what he said,” Mr Law added.

“Which I took as he was going to have a go at me.”

Four of the seven campaigners trying to reach the sit-in were able to escape and get in, including Mr Law.

The university management is yet to comment on any of the week’s events.