FOREST landowners fearful of attack by wild boar have been told they can legally shoot the animals.

The Argus reported last month how 51-year-old horse rider Carla Edmonds, from Staunton, near Monmouth, fled in terror from the animals.

Her horse Elwood was forced into a gallop to outrun the sharp-tusked beasts as she was riding in High Meadow Woods near the Wales-England border.

More than 20 wild boar have been on the run in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, for the last eight weeks.

The animals have been sighted with increasing regularity and fears are growing that they may attack walkers who are accompanied by pets.

Gloucestershire trading standards have been trying to trace the owner of the part-domesticated animals since before Christmas without any success and have now classed the animals as officially "wild".

Landowners have now been told that the animals, which can grow up to six feet long, can be shot if they are discovered on private land.

Yvonne Thornton, animal health inspector from Gloucestershire trading standards, said: "The boar have been out in the Forest since the beginning of December and are living in their natural environment.

"But nobody has come forward to claim them. They are not as yet a protected species and if wild animals go on to private land and are not protected, landowners can shoot them, but it must be done in a humane way.

"There have been no reported incidents where the boar have attacked people so far."

Wild boar were hunted to extinction in Britain 300 years ago but had been present in British forests and woodland since the Ice Age.

Now forest managers fear this herd will revert to natural wild boar behaviour and gain a permanent foothold in the forest ecosystem.

Rob Guest, deputy surveyor from Forest Enterprise, who manage the area, said: "At the moment the boar are not strictly wild and are nothing more than a nuisance.

"Established wild boar are more or less totally nocturnal, very elusive and difficult to track down.

"The herd at large at the moment are quite approachable and are mostly seen during daylight hours."