LONDON (AFP) - Supporters of fox hunting stormed Britain's parliament and scuffled with police at a mass rally, but failed to prevent lawmakers from moving closer to a ban of the blood sport.
Debate was suspended for half an hour after five pro-hunt protesters broke into the House of Commons chamber, but ministers later voted by a majority of 356 to 166 in favour of the government bill.
Seven people were arrested as some of over 10,000 hunting supporters outside Parliament Square clashed with police, injuring at least 17 people, including a policeman.
Some protesters had been launching missiles, including bottles and fireworks, at police.
Clashes continued sporadically after the vote, but the crowd had begun to disperse by 6:45 pm (1745 GMT) after riot police were called in to calm the situation.
Earlier in parliament, four of the men ran out from behind the chair of the speaker, charged with keeping the order in the House of Commons. Another wrestled past a doorkeeper from a different entrance.
They were chased and eventually caught by officials live on television, but not before one pointed a finger and ranted at the government minister leading the debate, Alun Michael.
As the Commons resumed business following a half-hour delay deputy speaker Sylvia Heal told lawmakers: "A very serious incident has taken place."
She said that an investigation was already underway and that speaker Michael Martin would be receiving reports from the police and the parliamentary security staff.
The incident will pose yet more security questions in Britain, coming just a day after a man broke into Buckingham Palace grounds dressed as Batman and stood on a ledge to protest for fathers' rights.
The fox hunting issue has been simmering since the Labour Party took power in 1997, and came to a boil in September last year when more than 400,000 hunt supporters bore down on London for an unprecedented march.
Supporters insist the practice is an inalienable right and a rural tradition which helps control countryside pests and provides thousands of jobs.
Opponents say it is both elitist and barbaric, with a pack of dogs tracking a live animal and then tearing it apart.
The Commons has voted before for a total hunting ban, but opposition in the upper House of Lords, rooted deeply in the land-owning aristocracy, stalled legislation long enough for it to die on the order paper.
If it is blocked again, Prime Minister Tony Blair has vowed to employ the Parliament Act -- a rarely-used law allowing him to override the opinion of the upper house -- to get the ban on the law books.
The government has said any ban will not come into effect for two years, though that could be shortened to 18 months to please anti-hunt hardliners within the Labour Party.
The ban would apply in England and Wales, after Scotland's autonomous parliament imposed a similar measure two years ago.
Fox hunting is one of Britain's most bitter political issues, with a great number of country dwellers in favour of the activity but the majority of parliament and people in general against it.
It is a quintessential British country pastime going back many centuries in which noisy packs of hounds chase a fox over rolling countryside, followed by hunters in bright red jackets galloping on horseback.
The fox, if it fails to escape, is eventually cornered, killed and ripped apart by the excited dogs before someone comes with a plastic bag and takes its remains away for disposal.
Britain's vocal animal welfare movement, outraged by the obvious brutality of the sport, have called for a ban for years, and influential members and factions of Blair's own Labour Party want to see it done away with as well.