A boy who suffered life-threatening head injuries from a falling tree branch was airlifted to hospital from Richmond Park this morning.

The boy was on a school trip when he was hit by the branch, according to police.

Emergency services were called at 10.44am and ambulance crew, car responder and London’s Air Ambulance arrived shortly after.

A Royal Parks spokesman said: “Firstly, our thoughts are with the boy and his family, and we hope he makes a speedy recovery.

"Incidents such as this are particularly rare which is testament to the regular checks made on nearly 170,000 trees across all eight Royal Parks. We are now working with specialist teams to fully investigate this incident.”  

A London Ambulance Service spokesman said: “We treated a child for head and leg injuries. He was taken to Royal London Hospital by London's Air Ambulance.”

The Health and Safety Executive were informed and attended the park.

No one else is believed to have been injured.