Eight people trapped in social club for more than an hour by ‘aggressive’ fox

Eight people were trapped in a Cambridgeshire social club for more than an hour after a marauding fox confronted them in the car park. One customer suffered a bite wound during the incident and another used a bicycle to keep the animal at bay. A pest controller who was called to destroy the fox had to return to his vehicle for safety after the animal advanced on him. The drama began late on Saturday night at Alconbury Sports and Social club, when a customer went outside for a cigarette. He saw the fox running towards him and retreated inside, fully expecting it to wander off, but instead the animal waited outside the main door.



When he went to leave through another door, the fox ran to that one instead, preventing him from leaving and tried to enter the building. The situation began to get more serious as the fox started showing clear signs of aggression to anyone trying to pass it. The club’s chairman Bruce Stains ventured outside, but ended up being chased around the car park by the animal. When one woman customer tried to tempt the animal away from the door with food she was bitten on the hand. At this point Mr Stains called pest control expert Graeme Brown who lives in the village.

Mr Brown, who has 18 years of experience in pest control, said: “It was a serious situation. The fox was extremely aggressive. When I got there it advanced towards me. I tried to scare it away, shouting, stamping and waving my arms – but it had no effect. I tried to move it with a stick and it just bit the stick. It then penned me in a children’s play area before I could get back to my car. I have never seen anything like this before. It was just in your face. There was no option but to humanely destroy the fox. We could not have left it. Children play in that area and it would have been a serious risk.”



It is believed that the animal could have been an urban fox that had been caught and then released near the village. Mr Stains added: “I’m just glad it didn’t appear during the day when we had over 200 children using the sports ground.” A spokesman for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire Wildlife Trust, said: “This is clearly very unusual behaviour for a fox and 
it is hard to explain. Even though foxes have become bolder it is still not something you would expect to happen. It is certainly an isolated incident as we have had no other reports like this across the three counties where we operate.”