Pakistani police fired tear gas and attacked protesting students who stormed a college building Thursday because they were angry over an alleged rape on campus, the Associated Press reported.

Tensions on college campuses rose after reports of a rape in the eastern city of Lahore spread on social media and protests erupted in four cities.

The unrest began on Thursday when hundreds of students demonstrated outside a campus in the city of Rawalpindi in Punjab province. They burned furniture and blocked a key road in the city, disrupting traffic, before ransacking a college building. Police responded with batons and tear gas to disperse the protesters, police spokesman Mohammad Afzal said. Police said they arrested 250 people, mostly students, on charges of disturbing public order. News of the arrests sent parents into a panic as they struggled to secure the release of their children. In Gujrat, also in Punjab province, a security guard was killed in clashes between protesting students and police on Wednesday. Police have arrested one person in connection with his death.