UK Cricketers run for cover after crossbow bolt shot onto The Oval during Surrey-Middlesex match

Players and spectators at a major London sports stadium take cover after a metal-tipped arrow is shot onto the cricket field.

Players and spectators at a major London sports stadium have been told to take cover after a metal-tipped crossbow bolt was shot onto the cricket field.

County cricket side Surrey was playing Middlesex at The Oval when the arrow landed just near the pitch, prompting more than 1,000 spectators to be evacuated by police.

One of the commentators originally thought it was a meteor.

“What is that in the field of play? They’ve just pointed at something. It’s poking up out of the ground. Some sort of — I don’t know what it is, a meteor or something. What on Earth is that?”

BBC commentator Kevin Hand said the players quickly left the field.

“Everyone was told to take cover inside the grounds, and that was obviously worrying for people who were outside,” he said.

Nobody was injured but play was abandoned and the stadium was evacuated.

The arrow is yellow and red and appears to be about 35 centimetres long.

“It was a pretty tasty arrow with a proper metal end,” said Surrey captain Gareth Batty, who was fielding about 25 metres from where it landed.

Source: Cricketers run for cover after crossbow bolt shot onto The Oval during Surrey-Middlesex match – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)