Animal rights campaigners protesting outside a controversial lab in the UK were heavily outnumbered yesterday as hundreds rallied to its defence for the first time.
Police estimated that around 700 people, who included students, dons and members the public marched through the streets of Oxford to the site of the £18 million animal testing facility.
The event was timed to coincide with a protest by the main animal rights group opposed to Oxford University's planned biomedical research facility, which attracted a further two to three hundred people.
At one point the two rival demonstrations stood just a few hundred metres apart across a no-go zone controlled by mounted police.
But, although voices were raised, there was no direct confrontation. Thames Valley Police said that there had been no arrests by the end of the pro-lab event.
The march comes after almost two years of vocal opposition to the lab which has included claims of intimidation and even firebomb attacks on Oxford colleges' property, for one of which the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) claimed responsibility.
Yesterday's march was organised by a group calling itself "Pro-Test" which claims to have the backing of a hitherto "silent majority" particularly in the university.
The group was set up online by 16-year-old Laurie Pycroft.
"I felt that it was about time to speak out in support of scientific research," he said before the march.
Among the speakers at a rally in central Oxford was Prof John Stein, professor of physiology at the university, who told the crowd that the event represented a "a line in the sand" after vocal opposition to medical testing on animals.
Local MP, Dr Evan Harris, who is also the Liberal Democrat spokesman for science, told the crowd that he had acted as a human guinea pig in tests for HIV and AIDS treatments.
"My message to the extremists is that you will never win," he said.