Visitors to Richmond Park surrounded and frightened a family of deer, eyewitnesses told Richmond Nub News.

People are advised to stay at least 50 metres away from the wild deer at all times under Royal Parks guidance.

Vast numbers of people visited the park over the weekend and, in one of the fields off Sawyer's Hill, the animals were "trapped" by huge crowds.

"There was a nursery of fawns. It was awful really. They were surrounded by 150 people, maybe even a little more, many of whom were far too close," the visitor told us.

"Men, women and children. The fawns looked frightened and were penned in. They were trapped in effect.

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"Because of that they looked startled and kept making little runs but there was nowhere for them to escape.

"It was very disturbing and upsetting to see.

"If I had been braver I would have told them to go away. But there was so many people that I felt I couldn't really do anything about it."

They also told us about a separate incident in which a stag was almost hit by a cyclist as he was riding down Sawyer's Hill.

"There was a stag and he was clearly going to go across the road. Cyclists were riding way too fast and the stag suddenly bolted across the road and a cyclist had to swerve and missed him by inches.

"I just think, why do it? The deer and the wildlife, it's their park. We're visitors for a few hours and we need to behave, whether we're on foot, in a car or on a bike. We need to behave in a way that respects nature."

Park visitors posted photos, videos and their own testimonies of people crowding the deer.

David Underdown said: "I thought the police were about to intervene at one point but they must have been called somewhere as the two vehicles that were in the area headed off with blue lights flashing."

David McGeachie added: "Whenever I visit Richmond or Bushy I see idiotic behaviour with the animals. I even saw tourists physically bothering cows at Petersham.

"The level of stupidity in the world seems to be very high these days!"

Tanya Hooper said: "Please remember the deer are wild animals and you need to keep your distance.

"I had to shout at a lady today as a large group of deer had been surrounded by people from behind and she had no idea a large deer was heading towards her at speed. Fortunately she was ok, yet startled."

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