YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Indonesian police fired tear gas and water cannon to halt thousands of students at Yogyakarta`s Gajah Mada university from moving off campus as anti-government protests flared across Indonesia on Wednesday, Riot police massed on the edge of the Gajah Mada campus, a hotbed of recent student protests, to prevent about 8,000 students chanting slogans against President Suharto from moving out of the university grounds. Three students were seen lying apparently unconscious on the ground after police fired tear gas and water cannon and waded into the crowd with sticks and riot shields. "Please don`t hit us, please don`t hit us," a number of students cried. There was no specific reference to the deaths of six students at Jakarta`s Trisakti University during clashes with riot police there on Tuesday. Demonstrations erupted again in the capital on Wednesday, with a riot by local people near the Trisakti campus. At least one man died in the clash. In Indonesia`s second city, Surabaya in East Java, around 30,000 students from a number of universities took to the streets, but no immediate trouble was reported. Residents in the South Sumatran city of Palembang said shops shut after students took to the streets and started stoning buildings and the local parliament around midday. The situation quietened later in the day, residents said. Indonesia is undergoing its worst economic crisis in decades, coinciding with growing political turmoil focused on calls for Suharto, 76, to stand down.