A HUNT supporter and a saboteur both claim to have been attacked in a confrontation at a meeting of the Worcestershire Hunt.

Joint Master David Palmer described the saboteurs as "rural hooligans" after one hunt supporter was attacked with a jemmy and had to have eight stitches in a head wound at the meet at Elmbridge, near Droitwich.

"It is irresponsible behaviour in the extreme to come at anyone with a jemmy. It is a lethal weapon," he said. "We were doing everything according to the letter of the law. We had laid a trail earlier in the day and within five minutes of moving off, this horde of oafs swarmed across the fields shouting at us.

"They had their heads and faces covered and by blowing horns they drew the hounds towards a road."

But one of the saboteurs, who gave his name as Clive, has made an official complaint to the police after suffering severe bruising and concussion in an attack by hunt supporters during Saturday's meet.

He said he was hit across the face with a stick and then jumped on and kicked around the face and body until he was unconscious.

"The next thing I remember is being in a vehicle on the way to hospital, drifting in and out of consciousness," he said.

Clive, who has been a hunt saboteur for 20 years, said he was one of seven walking back to their vehicle when they were set upon by a group of spectators.

"We were all punched and hit, but I was dragged away from the main group into a ditch and my friends didn't see what was happening to me," he said.

He believed the hunt was illegal and that huntsmen were not following a trail, but sending hounds into a wood to flush out a fox.

Asked about this, Mr Palmer said: "If we had been doing as they say, we would have been trying to flush the fox to our bird of prey, an eagle owl, which is perfectly legal."

This is the third clash between hunts and saboteurs in the two counties in the last month.

On New Year's Eve the Worcester News reported a clash between members of the Clifton-on-Teme Hunt and saboteurs in which the huntsmen claimed they were ambushed by a group near Bromyard. Saboteurs denied the claims mad by the hunt.

Meanwhile, there was a wild-west style stand-off between the Worcestershire Hunt and saboteurs in Rushock, near Droitwich, on Saturday, January 7, in which hunt members encircled a balaclava-clad group until police arrived.