Karen Buttery says she couldn’t believe her eyes when she was nearly sent flying by a bird of prey in central Oxford.

The deputy manager of Stonesfield pre-school was walking in Turl Street on Wednesday when the bird dropped “like a stone” out of the sky, landing on the pavement in front of her with a pigeon between its talons.

The mother-of-three, 44, said: “It was incredible, I just saw this bird land with a pigeon underneath it.”

Oxford Mail:

Karen Buttery.

She said a woman passer-by told her it was to do with pigeon control specialists who were working at Exeter College.

Ms Buttery told the Oxford Mail: “This guy ambled out and said to the hawk ‘you can’t have that’.”

It turned out the man – and the Harris Hawk – worked for pest control company Hawkforce, which trains the birds to scare off pigeons.

Ms Buttery added: “They are not supposed to go all the way and kill them.”

Neither Hawkforce nor Exeter College responded to requests for comments.

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