An eyewitness has detailed the harrowing moment he watched police officers repeatedly strike a cow in a response vehicle.

Kai Bennett told GB News how he urged the officers to ease off, accusing them of delivering a heavy-handed response.

Speaking to Patrick Christys, Bennett said he put himself in harm’s way and told police they would have to “shoot him first” if they wanted to get to the cow.

“They had tried to keep me at the scene because deep down, they knew their plan of action was to put this calf down and they knew with me at the scene, that was not going to happen”, he said.

“They took their eye off me for too long because I slipped around and made my way towards the park.

“The police scurried to shut the gates around the park and asked me if I could shut the furthest one, which I happily did.

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“As I was on my way to the fence to shut it, I overheard that the gun units were coming to shoot it so I put myself in danger’s way. I was within metres of the cow.

“I was basically saying, ‘if you want to shoot this cow, you go through me first’.”

Bennett told Patrick that he is hopeful justice is served over the incident, claiming that a normal member of the public would not get away with such an offence.

“I want to see what would happen to any of us if we were to hit a cow with our car”, he said.

“The officer enjoyed it, in my opinion, he didn’t show a single bit of remorse.”

Ex-police officer Norman Brennan joined Patrick to defend the police officer, saying the force felt the need to take “drastic action”.

“I know the area well, it’s a 50mph road and the M25 is around the corner”, he said.

“Just supposing the cow ran across the 316 late at night and a husband, wife and baby drove along and out of nowhere, it pulled in front of them.

“They either hit it or swerve to miss it and hit a tree. What would the public say then?

“I bet it would be, ‘what did the police do prior to that to save the life of that woman, that man and the injured baby?’”

The animal has been seen by a vet and is receiving treatment for a large cut to its leg, according to Surrey Police.

The force confirmed the incident took place in Staines-upon-Thames shortly before 21:00 BST on Friday evening.

It said: “The cow ran onto a number of main roads and caused traffic disruption within the local area.

"Whilst attempting to move the cow to safety, it became increasingly distressed and was injured.”

It said officers responding "were extremely concerned about the public’s safety, and over a period of a number of hours tried a number of options to safely capture the cow".

The RSPCA said: "Surrey Police has referred themselves to their own professional standards department and to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

"We support this as the action appears disproportionate to the situation. We are happy to assist in any investigations carried out."