BRITISH police are “starting to follow the guidebook” of their US counterparts, NGO Cage has warned as pro-Palestine student encampments face brutal crackdowns.

A medical student who took part in the camp at Newcastle University told the group that they treated nine casualties after a peaceful sit-in was met with “a brutal police response” on May 29.

They said they “dealt with students suffering baton blows to the head, neck and torso,” and witnessed students being “choked by officers, punched in the face repeatedly and female students having their clothes shredded and bodies groped by officers.”

“Police tore the ligaments in the knees of one of my medic colleagues and dragged her across the floor, before attempting to baton me as I rendered aid to an unconscious female suffering chest trauma who was just crushed by police,” they said.

The encampment has also received eviction notices from the university authorities, who have also cut off water and electricity services to the students and shut down toilet facilities. 

Violence also spread to Queen Mary University, where individuals reportedly attacked encampments and threw bottles of urine at students. 

At Oxford University, several students have been arrested and received notices of investigations.

Cage International’s Anas Mustapha said British police are “starting to follow the guidebook of their American counterparts.”

He added: “Despite the campaign of violence and harassment against the encampments, students have maintained their stand and continue to voice their key demands — a united call for an end to their institutions’ complicity in the genocide and for the end of the genocide itself.”