Oxfordshire motoring journalist Jeremy Clarkson faces a police investigation after admitting on TV that he deliberately ran down a fox in his car.

The outspoken Top Gear TV presenter and newspaper columnist, who lives in Chipping Norton, outraged wildlife campaigners by claiming to have driven straight at the animal rather than brake or try to avoid hitting it.

The group Protect Our Wild Animals has formally asked the Metropolitan Police to investigate his claim on the long-running BBC quiz show, Have I Got News For You, on Friday.

His comments came after fellow panellist Paul Merton talked about whether animals could feel pain.

Mr Clarkson commented that he did not think foxes could feel pain, and went on to say how he had recently run one over "on purpose".

He stated he could have braked, but "chose not to."

POWA campaigner Penny Little, who runs the Little Foxes sanctuary at her home in Great Haseley, near Thame, said: "I know this is a programme which relishes being shocking, but this claim was made quite seriously.

"If that's his idea of humour, it's not what I recognise as humour."