"Out of control" hounds from a hunt have been caught on camera running amok through a Cotswold tourist hotspot.

The hounds were seen on Friday, October 18 rampaging through Bourton-on-the-Water after a hunt appears to have lost control of them in open countryside earlier in the day.

The hounds navigated busy roads, jumped over garden fences and ran down private estate roads before they eventually managed to get them back under control.

The incident has been reported to Gloucestershire Police.

John Petrie, senior campaigns manager for the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “It’s evident that the hounds were out of control, in all likelihood after picking up the trail of a fox.

“Hunts claim they follow pre-laid trails, but that’s clearly not the case here or the hounds would not have run off.

“And who on earth would lay a trail through a popular tourist hotspot and home for thousands of villagers?”

The dogs captured on CCTV running by people's homes in Bourton-on-the-Water - photo by Steve SilvermanThe hounds were caught on residents’ CCTV running through a housing estate much to the distress of local residents, and also over a fence – on which one of the hounds got caught up – before heading down a road in the village.

A member of the Three Counties Hunt Saboteurs saw the hunt hounds heading towards the village where the footage was captured on residents’ CCTV and obtained by local hunt monitors.

Mr Petrie said: “It’s time for change and for fox hunting laws to be strengthened, with so-called trail hunting banned, loopholes in the law removed, and custodial sentences introduced for those that break the law.”

Gloucestershire Constabulary say enquiries are ongoing but currently no offences have been confirmed.

“We received reports of loose hounds from a hunt in residential and industrial areas in Bourton-on-the-Water on Friday (October 18),” a spokesperson said.

“Enquiries have been taking place and these are ongoing, and at this time there are no confirmed offences.”