THE Red Cock, "commando" wing of the Dutch-Belgian Animal Liberation Front, is the prime suspect in an eco-terrorist attack in eastern Flanders this week.

The group is under investigation in Termonde, Flanders, for the destruction of two meat lorries and an abattoir containing 300 carcasses on Monday. The group has attacked the fast-food restaurants McDonald's and Quick as symbols of a global system that perpetrates a "permanent Holocaust against Man's fellow mammals".

Belgium has set up an eco-terrorism task force but the movement's leaderless cells make it difficult to penetrate.