People had to scale fences to leave a park after confusion over exits following a major music festival.

A number of people, including a 61-year-old man with a bad back, had to scale Crystal Palace Park's walls to get out of the park and back home after the Crystal Palace Garden Party music festival.

The confusion came after the third day of the Crystal Palace Garden Party, a music festival, came to an end.

Thousands attended the three day event which has been praised for bringing life back to the park.

As people went back to their cars at the Thicket Road end of the park, they found the lights of the park were switched off.

The attendees decided to follow the paths which were illuminated by the lights coming from nearby houses, so they could see where they were going.

Crescends Kelly, 61, of Carshalton was one of the people trying to find a way out and said at one point there were 10 people spread out trying to find the exit.

They eventually found a gate by Westwood Hill, but to their dismay it was locked.

Mr Kelly said it was too dark to go anywhere else so instead he and many others scaled the eight foot fence so they could get out of the park.

The retired businessman, who attended the event with a friend, said: "We thoroughly enjoyed the music festival and the atmosphere and the firework display at the end was fantastic.

"It was quite scary walking through the park in the dark. We could have been mugged and as I don’t know the area well we were easy targets."

He added: "I have had four joint injections on my back and in the past year it has been hard to walk so climbing a fence, although it went ok this time, could have been problematic.

"I have asked the organisers and the council if there can be more signs and that the paths can be lit for next year."

Mike Fox, who organised the event, said there may have been some miscommunication with the council and he would be looking to liaise with them further ahead of the next event.

A spokesperson for Mr Fox added: "The vast majority of people parked in the correct car park without issues for this successful event but clearly this was not the case for a handful of motorists.

"We will look carefully at this aspect for future events to ensure this doesn’t happen again."