Richmond Runfest has issued an apology after cancelling the marathon event whilst 1,000 runners were still on the course.

The event, which began at Kew Gardens and finished at Old Deer Park, took place on Sunday 10 September, with a separate 10k race taking place on Saturday, which had no issues.

The marathon event was cancelled mid race due to heat and safety concerns.

As well as this, two of the water stations ran out of water, meaning runners couldn't hydrate.

Runners were asked to slow down and make their way to the finish line.

Tom Bedford, Race Director, issued an apology yesterday and said that in hindsight he "would have certainly cancelled the marathon if not the whole event" in advance.

In the statement he said: "During the event our control room were receiving a high number of calls from our amazing marshals. This was obviously largely heat related and put a large demand on our medical responders. Heat related illness only has one fix and that is to cool the patient down.

"The safety of our runners beats any personal best so the call was made to get the remaining runners out on the course back to the finish where we had medical resources. The event is hugely grateful for the work that our medical team and LAS provided to get our runners back safely.

"We can confirm two of the water stations on the marathon route briefly ran out of water. Our attempts to replenish this took longer to implement than expected and we are deeply sorry to the runners affected. Nub News has contacted Richmond Runfest for comment."

At the end of his statement he added: "We made many mistakes yesterday and we must do better in similar circumstances. If I had the opportunity again we would have certainly cancelled the marathon if not the whole event. On behalf of all the Runfest team, we're sorry."

Runners and spectators took to social media, with one runner labelling the event as "shambolic" and another saying that it was "shocking to watch to many people collapsing at the Richmond RunFest.

She added: "If you hold an event in this weather there should at least be water available, otherwise be sensible and call it off in advance. Disgraceful."

Read the full statement here.