A four-month-old baby boy is in hospital after being bitten on the head by a circus camel, French police say.

The incident happened on Saturday as the baby boy and his mother visited the circus in the south-eastern French town of Megeve.

The mother was carrying the boy in a front sling and was looking at the camel in its enclosure when it suddenly bit the baby on the head.

"We weren't feeding it or stroking it," the mother told the local Le Dauphine Libere newspaper.

She said the camel's bottom lip clamped onto her son's forehead, with the top lip at the back of his head.

The mother says the baby sustained "multiple fractures" but "should not suffer any after-effects".

Police rushed to the scene and called emergency services after hearing the mother scream.

AFP