Richmond Park has issued an urgent warning to visitors to not approach wild animals after a father was pictured holding his toddler within metres of a stag.

Photographer Tim Constable captured the moment when taking pictures in the London park and said he feared the deer might attack the man and his daughter.

He told The Telegraph it seemed a 'strange thing to do putting your kid in the way of some massive antlers' and that the pair were 'slow to back away'. 

Richmond Park, which is the largest of London's Royal Parks, is home to over 630 red and fallow deer.

During the rutting season, the period where stag compete for the right to mate with females, they become more aggressive. 

Now, the Park has ben forced to warn visitors to keep away from the animals noting that attacks on members of the public have increased in recent years. 

Peter Lawrence, the assistant park manager at Richmond Park, has warned visitors to stay at least 50 metres away from deer during rutting season — between September and early November.

Commenting on the image he said: 'This is an extremely unsafe situation.

'We remind all visitors to Richmond Park and Bushy Park to exercise extreme caution during the rutting season, which runs from late September to early November.'

Mr Constable told The Telegraph he did not see the man approach the stag but believed it would not have approached him because 'they tend to keep to themselves'.

He said the man and child appeared to be no more than 2ft away and backed off when he realised 'the deer didn't want to play'.

In 2017, Yuan Li, a high-profile hatmaker required hospital treatment after being gored by a stag. 

The then 43-year-old suffered six puncture wounds that required surgery in hospital. 

The milliner, who has made hats for Holly Willoughby and Myleene Klass, was left with a major wound on her thigh and a small blood clot on her bladder.

Miss Li had been taking pictures in the park last Friday when the stag attacked her.