Anti-fur protesters hacked into Chanel's website yesterday and accused the French fashion house's designers of being murderers.

Shortly before the morning showing in Paris where Chanel unveiled its spring-summer collection on the catwalk, gory images of animals were posted on its website by campaigners.

"We had a hacker," a Chanel spokeswoman said. "We closed the site and are going to conduct an investigation."

There was no fur on display on the catwalk when the Chanel show was opened by the designer Karl Lagerfeld. At the launch of Christian Dior's collection in Paris on Monday, fur accessories by the British designer John Galliano were on view. Guests including the actress Liv Tyler, French news reader Claire Chazal and Heini Al Fayed, wife of the Harrod's owner, saw items including racoon hats and fox fur stoles.

France has more hunters than any other EU country and Britain's agonising over whether to ban fox hunting is regarded with puzzlement.