HORRIFIED residents watched as out of control hounds ran riot over a Slad nature reserve.

Members of the Andoversford-based Cotswold Hunt, dressed in red hunting jackets, blew horns as their hounds terrorised wildlife at the Swift Nature Reserve in Swift Hill, Slad on Monday morning.

Hunting with hounds was banned last year, but it is not an offence to exercise the dogs.

The 16 hunt members and their 28 hounds had permission to be in the fields above the woods if dogs were kept under control, but not to be in the woods.

Slad Valley resident Sue Davis said: "I heard a crash in the shrubberies behind me and saw a deer. At first I thought I had frightened it but I realised a hound was after it.

"Later I heard barking and howling in the woods. Three hounds went up into the woods.

"Swift Hill is a nature reserve - there's no way hounds should be there. "Our lovely enclave has been violated."

One resident captured two hounds and called the police.

The man, who asked not to be named, said: "There was a whole pack of them all over the woods. They had clearly killed something because there was a hell of a din.

"We couldn't care less whether hunting's good or bad but we don't think they should be charging around these peoples' land."

Cotswold Hunt spokesman Sophie George said: "The Cotswold Hunt was conducting hound training to a scent in the Slad Valley with full police awareness.

"Unfortunately two young hounds strayed off the pre-paid line. The hounds had been captured and locked in a stable in Elcombe.

"The DEFRA website confirms that hounds running after a mammal is not an offence if the intention was to follow a trail."

But Gloucestershire Constabulary spokesman Matt Ford said police had not been informed that the hunt was in the woods, and that officers were investigating the incident.