POLICE are investigating after hunt supporters attempted to hold up a steam train carrying an anti-hunting MP at the weekend.

Protestors on horseback tried to hijack the train carrying Scarborough and Whitby Labour MP Lawrie Quinn on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway on Saturday.

Horses galloped alongside the train and one supporter laid down on the track as the locomotive travelled between Whitby and Pickering to mark the reopening of the line to steam.

Eggs and gravel were hurled at the train and campaigners held up posters calling for the MP to be voted out.

The protest was condemned by Philip Benham, the railway's general manager.

He said: "This was foolish and also illegal.

"People should be allowed to make their views known but not when they put lives in danger.

"A lot of time is spent educating people on the safe use of railways and here we had grown men behaving with stupidity."

The MP, who voted for the ban on hunting with dogs, remained on the train throughout the protest.

Afterwards, he said people who wanted a different MP should go about it through the ballot box.

Officers from North Yorkshire Police attended after being tipped off by passengers on the train, but no arrests were made.

A spokesman said last night they were still investigating the incident.

"People have a right to protest but there's a requirement that they should do so within the law," he said.