A shire horse bolted and stampeded into a crowd of hundreds of spectators during a display.

Baron, who is 13, was part of a show of shire horses at the annual Heavy Horse Spectacular when he bolted. The animal freed himself from the vehicle he was pulling and charged into the crowd.

The huge horse ran at a fence which he broke through before coming to a halt in a field at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in Singleton, near Chichester.

A couple of hundred people fled as Baron ran around the museum field before being surrounded and caught by museum staff.

The driver of the two-wheeled cart, Brian Sylvester, was thrown out of the vehicle and rolled on the ground but managed to escape with minor injuries.

No one was hurt in the incident yesterday. A vet was called to examine the horse, which was treated for cuts.

Around 3,000 people packed the annual event where between 35 and 40 shire horses from across the South-East were on show.

Museum director Christopher Zeuner said: "We are extremely sad people have been frightened and disturbed by the incident.

"The horse ran towards the fence but kept running and did not stop. Luckily no members of the public were hurt and neither was the horse.

"We took whatever precautions we felt we needed to prepare for these event but these things do happen. Things can go wrong when you have an event where animals are involved."