Scotland Yard faced added pressure today after footage emerged of mounted officers charging at protesters who were demonstrating against tuition fees rises. Police had initially denied that they used horses to break up a crowd of 1,000 protesters who gathered in Trafalgar Square on Wednesday night in a wave of national demonstrations.

But a five-and-a-half minute video posted on YouTube 24 hours after their claim shows up to a dozen mounted police causing panic as they ride at speed into the crowds. One pregnant woman who claims to have been pinned against a wall by one of the horses said she feared she and her baby could have been killed. Footage from the tuition fees protests was shot by Brunel University graduate Fred Tscepp, 22, and shows some demonstrators hurling missiles at police.

They claim to have congregated  in  Trafalgar Square after fellow protesters were believed to have been trapped in a police cordon for six hours. Moments later at around 7pm a line of police officers who formed a barricade on Whitehall suddenly parts and around a dozen mounted police canter at the crowds.

Hundreds of students panic and then three police horses are seen among crowds walking at demonstrators. At one point three protesters are wedged between a horse and iron railings. A pregnant woman is seen crying as she tries to flee the animals. Eleven witnesses have since come forward to say that they were charged at. Sara Tomlinson, 45, and Margot Turner, 55, two mothers, said they were among the crowds who were ridden at by police  when they arrived to collect their children.