Crown Princess Mary and her four young children recoiled in horror and shielded their eyes as they witnessed a man take a horrific fall at the finish line of a traditional annual horse race.
The royal family were in high spirits as they watched the beloved parade from the balcony of Hermitage Palace, in a picturesque woodland north of Copenhagen on Sunday.
They were there to greet tens of thousands of people who had turned out to watch Hubertus Hunt, a cross country horse race marking the end of hunting season in Denmark.
But things took a sinister turn when one of the riders fell from his horse and lay limply on the ground in front of the Danish royal family and distraught onlookers.
Horror: Crown Princess Mary and her four young children witnessed a man fall from his horse at speed on Sunday
Princess Mary and her children Christian, Isabella, Vincent and Josephine watched on in horror as the man lay on the ground
Paramedics quickly attended to the man as thousands of horrified spectators watched on just metres away
The rider was assessed at the scene as the royal family waited anxiously from the balcony of Hermitage Palace, in the woods north of Copenhagen
The man was eventually stretchered into an ambulance and raced to a nearby hospital for further treatment
Princess Mary, 45, and her children Christian, Isabella, Vincent and Josephine watched on nervously as an ambulance arrived and took the man away in a stretcher.
The accident is believed to have happened after the race had finished in the square of Hermitage Palace, where contestants had gathered for the awarding of the Hubertus Chain.
Crown Prince Frederik did not attend the event as he was in Switzerland for an International Olympic Committee meeting.
The accident dampened the mood of the race, which takes place every year on the first Sunday in November and involves over 150 riders and up to 40,000 spectators.
The royal family were there to greet tens of thousands who had turned out to watch Hubertus Hunt, a cross country horse race marking the end of hunting season in Denmark
Princess Isabella, 10, held the Hubertus Chain after 160 riders had finished the 13-kilometre long course through the woods
Princess Mary, 45, and her children Christian, Isabella, Vincent and Josephine greeted the tens of thousands of spectators
The royal family greeted the enormous crowds from the balcony of Hermitage Palace, in Dyrehaven forest
Riders contend with 32 obstacles as they make their way through a 13-kilometre course in a beautiful woodland forest named Dyrehaven, meaning ‘The Deer Park’.
The forest was named a Unesco World Heritage site in 2015.
Danish kings and their court would hunt with hounds in the woods until the region was fenced off and opened to the general public in 1756.
It has since become a huge tourist attraction just 20 minutes outside of Copenhagen’s city centre, with stunning red gates marked with royal insignia found at every entrance and over 2,000 deers grazing the grounds.
Danish kings and their court would hunt with hounds in the woods until the region was opened to the general public in 1756
Crowd pleaser: Crown Princess Mary, 45, looked stunning in a fashionable pair of knee-high boots and a grey coat
The royal family rugged up as they took a horse-led carriage through the grounds and greeted spectators
