Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- About 400 students at the University of Kassala in eastern Sudan held rallies demanding the dismissal of the chancellor, a day after police fired tear gas to disperse protests over the rising cost of living, a witness said.

The police intervention yesterday marked the first time the security forces entered the campus during three weeks of protests against high education fees and the worsening economy, Muhammad Adam, a second-year economics student, said today by phone from Kassala, the state capital.

“They think storming the university gates will send us away, but here we are, protesting in even higher numbers,” he said.

Sudan’s annual inflation rate stood at almost 21 percent last month, the Khartoum-based Central Bureau of Statistics said on Oct. 7.

Sudan’s state information minister, Sanaa Hamad, and police spokesman Hashem Ali didn’t answer phone calls seeking comment.

--Editors: Karl Maier, Ana Monteiro

To contact the reporter on this story: Salma El Wardany in Khartoum at selwardany@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net