A video has captured the moment a brave fisherman was attacked by a swan in a Merseyside park for trying to help one of it's own.
The incident happened around 8am this morning in the lake in Taylor Park, St Helens.
Gary Lord, 64, from Rainhill, said he was out walking first thing we he noticed people gathering and a man, who he described in his late teens or early twenties, attempting to free a swan snagged in a line.
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Video footage shared with the ECHO shows the unknown man in waders attempting to free the bird, with a larger swan swimming towards him, flailing their wings and later biting him.
The man can be heard saying "it's trying to bite my a***" and telling the public that it's "not the hook, just the line wrapped around it."
Footage later shows the swan being cut free and swimming away.
Gary said it was "a bit of an Attenborough moment" to see the birds protecting one another and also described the young fisherman who tried to free the swan as "courageous."
Gary told the ECHO: "It was such a beautiful morning. I was was out walking in Taylor Park when I saw a swan attacking an angler after it had been sort of tangled up on a line.
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"There were about three or four fishermen all set up and one of them was wading out. He waded out and tried to untangle the swan but was attacked.
"It was a brown swan and it's parents were quite agitated because this guy was trying to do his best to untangle it.
"When I first saw it I thought what's going on here. It was a bit of an Attenborough moment.
"It kept on attacking him, flailing its wings and biting him but he stood firm and did really well. I think it was quite courageous of the man and it was really good to see those two parents protecting their own."
Gary said other people on the embankment stopped to ask what was going on, with one calling the RSPCA for assistance.
Footage later shows the swans swimming off untangled and Gary said it was good to witness the swans acting in their own nature and also seeing the young man trying to help.
Gary said: "I thought he was brave. Swans, they're big birds and I wouldn't have had the courage."
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