Hundreds of fish have died in Harrow Lodge Park lake for the second summer in a row.

Visitors to the park this weekend were confronted with the scene of hundreds of dead fish floating on the top of the usually scenic lake.

One of those to visit the park was Cllr Jody Ganly (RG, Hylands).

She said: “On Sunday I saw a lot of dead fish floating around on top of the water – it was quite awful to see.”

Cllr Ganly said she had been told by a constituent that about 15 dead birds had also been dredged from the lake.

Councillor Melvin Wallace, Havering Council’s cabinet member for culture and community engagement, said: “I’m really sorry that people have seen dead fish in the lake, this is an unfortunate incident that has been caused by the very hot weather and flash flooding last week.

“They have been removed and we continue to monitor oxygen levels, which are now back to normal.”

This is not the first time mass deaths have been seen at Harrow Lodge Park. Last September up to a thousand fish died in the lake following heavy rain.

In July 2013 hot weather aggravated an outbreak of botulism, caused by bacteria from mouldy bread, which also led to the deaths of hundreds of birds.

Hot weather and heavy rainfall can cause oxygen levels in the lake to decrease.

Havering Council has recently installed two windmill aerators as well as dredging the lake to help deepen it and increase oxygen levels.

The authority has also said that a broken aerator fountain will also be replaced this week.