Police are investigating after a video emerged of a Westcountry fox hunt spilling onto a busy railway line.

Footage of up to a dozen hounds running along the track in apparent pursuit of a fox was filmed by anti-hunt protesters.

The dogs are called back by huntsmen just before a train - packed with passengers – speeds down the line.

Police launched a probe into the actions of the Seavington Hunt after claims of illegal hunting and rail chiefs warned the hounds could have created carnage.

The train drivers’ union Aslef described footage of the incident – filmed next to the busy Exeter to Waterloo railway line through Clapton, Somerset – as “shocking”.

A spokesman for the union said: “I estimate around a dozen dogs were on the line at one point, which is a considerable threat to a train.

“Anything that affects the safety of the railway line is serious.

“To us it does not matter if it is an individual or a hunt, both are equally serious and we would hope both the hunt and the British Transport Police would take the same view.”

Witnesses to the incident, at about 7.20am, September 3, described seeing up to 20 hounds spilling onto the tracks in Clapton, near Crewkerne, in Somerset.

Footage of the incident was captured by anti-hunt protesters, who later handed it to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

The incident has been described as “incompetent, hopeless and careless” by the League Against Cruel Sports.

Jeremy Darke, senior master of the Seavington Hunt said: “We were hunting within the law that morning and, like other hunts, act in a responsible and legal way. No hounds were injured and as far as I am aware there was no incident with a train.”

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