Yangon, March 10 (IANS): Myanmar police on Tuesday launched a brutal crackdown on protesting students who attempted to push through barricades in order to continue their march in Letpadan, 140 km north of Yangon, for education reforms.

According to officials, the crackdown began in the afternoon when police began hitting students and media persons indiscriminately with their batons, The Myanmar Times reported.

The police force was at least 500-strong, with a significant presence of security forces in the crowd.

"They beat the journalists, so I had to run away," a student protestor said.

He said he saw police beating student leaders who had "fallen down on the ground".

Initial reports indicated that some of the student leaders had been arrested, the officials added.

The main cause of the protests are changes the students want to be made in the new education law which they say centralises control over higher education.

The protests first began in Mandalay in January.