New Year's Day parade horror as families watch a horse collapse in the street while pulling a carriage during spectacular London show

This is the horrifying moment a horse collapsed in the street during London's spectacular New Year's Day parade. Hundreds of thousands of people had lined the streets to watch the annual event on Monday, featuring 8,000 performers from all over the world - including dancers, acrobats, cheerleaders and marching bands. But the parade, hosted by the Lord Mayor of Westminster, was brought to a standstill momentarily when a white horse that pulling a carriage suddenly collapsed in the middle of Waterloo Place.  Carriage drivers were seen trying to help the animal get up after it fell to the ground.

Witness Fran Perrow described the scene as 'very distressing,' writing on Twitter that the horse had been stressed by the crowd and marching bands - and had reared up before getting its legs caught in the harness and falling to the ground. She said the horse had been down for around five minutes and that the response to free the creature had been 'very slow.' But a New Year’s Day Parade spokesman said the horse merely tripped and fell - and was able to finish the route once it had been helped back up again.
The 32nd parade, themed Showtime, was screened around the world to 600 TV stations in a mammoth satellite airing - said to be the biggest annual outside-broadcast in Britain.