Water cannons would have been deployed against students during the tuition fee protests in 2010 if the police had access to them, a committee heard today.

Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley told the London Assembly police and crime committee that Scotland Yard had identified around six occasions when the cannon could have been used in the past 12 years if they had been available.

A public consultation is currently being carried out over plans to try to buy three of the machines from Germany at a cost of £30,000 each, that will then need to be modified for use on British soil.