THUGS who drove cattle and sheep out of their field could have caused a "terrible accident" on a major North Yorkshire dual carriageway, a farmer warned today.

James Sykes said an "absolute tragedy" could have resulted if the 30 animals had strayed on to the A64 near Tadcaster.

He spoke out after the incident in the early hours of Monday, when a car was driven into the field, situated at the junction between the A162 and the A64.

Mr Sykes said the gate into the field had been opened and about ten cattle and 20 lambs were chased out on to the exit slip road of the A64, and down to the A162.

The animals went left, running for half-a-mile on the road, then across into a sugar beet field, leaving behind a trail of destruction, before becoming frightened again at daybreak and running back on to the A162, where they were stopped by police before they reached the A64.

Mr Sykes, 53, of North Milford Grange, said that had the animals turned right out of the field and on to the A64, "literally anything could have happened".

He said: "It could have been an absolute tragedy, a terrible accident.

"If there had been 30 animals, including ten cattle wandering across the A64, frightened and lost - it really does make me wonder what these people have been up to."

He said the animals were frightened out of the field by a car being driven round and round.

"I just can't understand what they were doing. That's not the action of poachers, or of people looking to steal or kill the animals themselves.

"Stock is expensive at the moment, but this just doesn't make sense to us, it really just seems mindless, and could have been so awful.

"Now we have learned from this though, and put a big chain and lock on the gate, to try to stop it happening again.

"I now just want to know what they were trying to do."

Mr Sykes said his stock had been "harassed half to death" during the incident.

A police spokesman said today that an officer had gone to the scene after a woman driver had reported almost running into a flock of sheep. The officer had returned them to the field and secured the gate.

The spokesman, Tony Lidgate, said that if the animals had been deliberately driven out of the field, it was "at best a disgrace...

"At worst, it could have led to a dreadful accident in which not only animals, but also people could have been killed."

Updated: 10:47 Wednesday, May 05, 2004