Kochi, June 23: Students’ union activists today vandalised the venue for a private medical college’s MBBS entrance test, forcing authorities to cancel it while a police team stood watching the commotion.

Activists of the pro-Left Students’ Federation of India and the All-India Students Federation started marching to the TOC-H Public School early this morning to prevent candidates from appearing for the test, scheduled to start at 9am.

The unions are against the high admission fees charged by private colleges.

Tension was running high from Friday after Kerala High Court declined police protection at the venue of the exam, to be conducted by the Kerala Self-Financing Medical College Association.

The examinees started taking their seats at the hall from 7am as the student activists gathered near the school.

The activists then charged towards the school in the monsoon downpour and flung open the gates. Once inside, they tore hall tickets, broke windowpanes and furniture.

The candidates ran helter-skelter while their parents watched helplessly.

The authorities conducting the test did not seem to be around. Nor did the 100-strong police picket, at some distance from the school, stir into action.

The exam, which was being taken by around 3,200 students, was soon cancelled.

The association’s general secretary George Paul said he would approach the high court with sufficient evidence of the “wanton violence”.

On the same day, another examination conducted by the B Pharm College Management Association at Sacred Heart College in Kochi went off smoothly as the police prevented DYFI activists from marching to the college.