VIDEO footage allegedly showing an attack that left hunt saboteurs needing treatment has been handed to Kent Police.

The film was given to the police unit responsible for enforcing the ban on hunting when it comes into force at midnight tonight.

Leading East Kent Hunt Saboteur campaigner Grant Tillman says that his footage shows an attack on his group while they were protesting at an East Kent Hunt meeting at Crundale on February 5.

Mr Tillman claims that two saboteurs were taken to the William Harvey Hospital, Ashford, suffering from head and arm injuries.

Several other demonstrators suffered minor injuries, and he had brusing to his upper body when he says he was thrown over a gate while filming.

Mr Tillman, who lives and works in Canterbury, claimed it was the worst violence he had seen in 10 years as an anti-hunt demonstrator.

He said: "There were 30 big blokes. They drove straight at us as we scattered for any cover we could find.

"Others fired stones at us from high-powered catapults and some hurled rocks. Two of them threw me over a gate. Ten of us, two of them women, were injured."

Mr Tillman said his group would continue to take non-violent direct action against anyone hunting illegally after today.

He says that they are working closely with police and that they have been issued with guidelines on how to obtain evidence at a meeting at Kent Police headquarters at Maidstone.

A police spokesman confirmed that officers had taken statements from two animal rights campaigners following an incident at Crundale. But a key member of the East Kent Hunt denied the attack had anything to do with the group.

Wonka Blakeney, who helps her husband, Richard, run the kennels at Elham and manage the hunt’s 38 meetings every season, said: "It’s the first I’ve heard of it.

"Violence is not something the hunt would sanction, encourage or condone. Our policy has always been to ignore the protests and intimidation we have endured, which is something the hunt protestors have actually got quite angry about."

Mrs Blakeney said the hunt would continue to operate ‘within the law’ until the end of the season.

She said: "There are only three weeks to go and we will just be exercising the hounds and having picnic rides out.

"Then we can let the courts, or a general election, decide the future of hunting for the new season which starts on November 1."