Government vets have confirmed that an animal killed on a rural Gloucestershire road was a wild boar.

The long-snouted and shaggy-haired creature was hit bya car on the A40 between Gloucester and the Forest of Dean.

Richard Keevil was treated for shock and minor injuries at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital after the crash on Thursday evening.

Wild boars, which are known to have roamed Gloucestershire in the Middle Ages, were hunted by King John who stayed at St Briavels castle.

The boar collided with a motorist

But the massive animals, with distinctive tusks growing from their lower jaws, disappeared from English woodlands during the 17th Century.

A spokeswoman for the department of the environment, food and rural affairs (DEFRA), Theo Wood, said: "These are very rare and dangerous animals and people must be licensed by the local authority before they can own one.

"We are currently trying to trace the owner, but to our knowledge there is only one licensed wild boar owner in the whole of our region and he lives in Wiltshire.

"There are some wild boars living wild in south Kent and in Dorset, but we have no knowledge of any living wild in Gloucestershire."

Farmer Rob Keene, who lives close to the scene of the accident, said: "One of the women who works for me thinks she saw the same animal a few days ago, about seven or eight miles away."