Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Attempts to capture the deer were filmed on mobile phones

A police armed response unit has shot dead a large wild stag on the grounds of a school in County Antrim.

It was spotted at Antrim Grammar School on Tuesday morning.

"Several attempts were made to safely and humanely manage the animal," a PSNI spokesperson said.

"Regrettably, after consultation with the vet working with officers at the scene, we were required to shoot the stag as it had become very agitated and posed a risk to the public."

Image caption Police and other agencies attempted to bring the stag under control

The office of the Police Ombudsman has been informed.

Greg Kayne, chairman of the British Deer Society in Northern Ireland, told the BBC: "The professionals on the ground would have had to make a risk assessment and that risk assessment would have been focused on public safety.

"Unpalatable though the outcome was for the deer, it sounds as though they had few if any options other than to do what they actually had to do."

School principal Hilary Woods said the incident had upset some pupils.

"We had to basically keep the school in lockdown until the situation was resolved, and there were a number of pupils who were obviously very distressed when they heard about the final outcome," she said.

"It actually ran past some of the pupils when they were outside.

"It could have caused damage and it would have been far worse for me as a principal to deal with, if a child or a member of the public had been injured."

Pupil Jordan McKelvey, who is 17, said: "I just saw the deer trapped and a lot of people and hearing the gunshots and it was quite distracting in class.

"It was quite sad and distressing to see that and hear it."