A plea has been made to visitors to the Royal parks to take their picnic litter home amid shocking images of deer eating from overflowing bins.

Huge numbers of people crowded into Richmond and Bushy parks over the Bank Holiday weekend and left behind a litter tsunami.

At the same time, there were long jams of traffic in Richmond Park which became so bad at one point that the authorities closed the Kingston Gate.

The jams reignited calls on social media for action to ban cars from what is effectively a wildlife reserve.

The Royal Parks Police highlighted the threat to deer by tweeting a picture of deer eating rubbish from an overflowing bin.

They wrote: "When visiting Bushy Park and Richmond Park please consider the consequences of failing to dispose of litter within the bins provided by the Royal Parks.

"Every year deer and other wildlife choke on discarded rubbish. If the bins are full, please take your rubbish home with you."