Hounds caused chaos on the A34 when they chased a fox on to the busy road during a hunt.

Drivers braked as the fox and up to 30 hounds from the Old Berks Hunt ran on to the road near the A415 junction to south Abingdon yesterday afternoon.

Police said there could have been a serious accident and have warned the hunt to keep its hounds under control.

Spokesman Richard Goodfellow said: "Motorists were put at risk by this hunt. The implications are quite serious.

"It was very lucky no-one was hurt. To have such a large pack of dogs going berserk on a busy stretch of dual carriageway is hazardous." Police stopped traffic until the hunt had cleared the fox's remains from the road, where the hounds killed it.

Marcus Armitage, joint Master of the hunt, said the incident was over within minutes.

"It is very hard when they are going that fast to get horses round to stop them. Normally we put people on horses along the side of a road to stop the hounds. We take the best precautions we possibly can with railways and roads. It was just unfortunate the fox ran this way. They normally run in circles this time of year." *Heavy loads are likely to cause hold-ups on the A34 today and tomorrow as huge steel bridge beams are transported to the M1. The lorries will join the A34 in Newbury and travel north through Oxfordshire to the M40.

Story date: Thursday 02 December

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