Exam cheats riot in Bangladesh

DHAKA, Bangladesh -- Riots have erupted across Bangladesh after a mass cheating scandal in final exams was foiled by police.

More than 100 people were hurt when the college students went on rampages, beating teachers and breaking windows, police and officials said Sunday.

CNN.com Asia More news from our Asia edition

"Violence erupted at several centres on Saturday when the examinees were outraged by strong vigilance against copying," one education official said.

Police said some students attacked teachers, set tables and chairs on fire and damaged cars.

"The students became violent when they failed to get prepared answers for the English question paper," said one police officer.

Relatives and friends of students clashed with police outside some exam centres when they tried to get prepared answer papers into the centres, police said.

Shots fired

Police said violence in 20 out of 64 districts was reported on Saturday. In many places police had to fire teargas and used batons to disperse angry students.

Education officials said nearly 9,000 students were expelled from centres across the country for copying on Saturday. The students would, however, be allowed to sit exams in other subjects, they said.

"I hope the situation will not be the same for other subjects," said another education official.

"English is something difficult for a majority of the students coming from Bengali-medium colleges."

A number of teachers were also expelled for helping students in copying while a few magistrates were assaulted by the examinees for preventing them from copying in the English second paper examination.

Bangladesh online news service NFB said police fired gunshots in different places, including Nilphamari, Joypurhat, Chudanga, Bhola and Chouddagram in Comilla, Barisal and Chittagong to bring the situation under control.

Reuters contributed to this report.

News From Bangladesh

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.