Chair of police federation says protester who hurled fire extinguisher from roof of Millbank building should 'pay the consequences'

A police leader said today that a protester who threw a fire extinguisher from the roof of a building during yesterday's student demonstrations in London should be charged with attempted murder.

Television pictures showed the fire extinguisher – which narrowly missed officers on the ground – being thrown from the roof of the Millbank building housing the Tory party HQ. Protesters targeted the building, with some gaining access to the roof.

Paul McKeever, the chair of the Police Federation, spoke out as Scotland Yard began an investigation into its planning and handling of the demonstration, which descended into violent clashes at Millbank.

One police officer today said the fire extinguisher had missed him by inches and would have killed him if it had hit him.

The man, who told the BBC that he was a member of the Territorial Support Group, which was called in after police lost control of the streets after being overrun by protesters, said: "It landed right behind me – literally no more than six inches."

He said that, if it had hit him, "somebody would have been visiting my wife and children and saying either I was dead or very seriously injured, the height that was dropped from, a solid piece of metal".

"I believe it took chunks out of the concrete paving behind me," he added.

McKeever told the Guardian: "That looks like attempted murder to me. The demonstrator should pay the consequences.

"If you throw a fire extinguisher from height at people below, the consequences of that are obvious."

The Met said 50 people arrested after the violence had been released on bail until February pending further inquiries.

Police have begun an investigation with a view to bringing criminal charges against those believed to have been involved in the violence.