Pro-hunt crowd attacks minister's car

FIVE people were arrested after pro-hunting protesters attacked the car carrying the rural affairs minister, Alun Michael, as he left a meeting last night.

As the minister’s car left a conference in Exeter, Devon, it was pelted with eggs by the 300-strong crowd gathered across the road.

Protesters threw themselves in front of the car and dozens of others broke through police lines and barricades.

Tense scenes followed as officers surrounded the vehicle and tried to drag protesters from it.

At least one protester appeared to be hurt in the melee.

After about 20 seconds the car, accompanied by a police vehicle, raced off along the street. Until then the crowd had been kept behind steel barricades by about 60 policemen. It was when the minister’s car reached an area of the street where there were no barricades that the protesters tried to stop the vehicle as it left.

Earlier, at a press conference after the meeting, Mr Michael refused to rule out a compromise on legislation to ban hunting as protesters vowed to continue their fight.

Mr Michael said that Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, had sought from the beginning to find a compromise on the issue.

"It has been very difficult after a great deal of effort to find middle ground or grounds for a compromise, because people’s views are so strong on either side of the argument," he said.

Mr Michael took time out of his meeting of the Association of National Parks to meet five countryside supporters, as about 200 banner-waving opponents of the bill demonstrated outside the hotel venue.

Mr Michael, in his first face-to-face meeting with opponents since the bill was brought back, said he did not understand the point of the protests.

"But it is them who have decided to be outside," he said, adding: "It is the House of Commons who voted last week on a free vote."

But Alison Hawes, south west regional director of the Countryside Alliance, said there was no progress in their meeting with the minister and promised to keep up the fight.

On Sunday, Mr Michael abandoned a right-to-roam visit in Lancashire on police advice, and on Monday he avoided pro-hunting protesters in Dorset when he met members of the Jurassic Coast Trust.