Londoners have been urged to stay away from a dolphin that was spotted in the River Thames.

The dolphin was seen several times near Putney Bridge in southwest London on Thursday morning, but it hasn’t been spotted since.

While onlookers are likely to see the dolphin if it remains in the river over the weekend, people have been told it appeared to be “struggling with the tide”.

Julia Cable, operations director at British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), has urged the public to get in touch if they spot it.

“It was still in the area throughout the evening but its behaviour wasn’t really changing so we didn’t continue monitoring it too late,” she said.

“It’s too far really for a dolphin to be up the river.”

Ms Cable added: “There’s no way we can actually physically move it unless it were to strand.

“All we can do is monitor it, check its behaviour and do our best to ensure everybody out on the river is aware that the dolphin is there and that they keep away from it.

“The worst thing is if people start going up to it, it could disorient it more. They’re used to being out in open water, with all of the noise on the river going on, for an animal it’s very confusing.”

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It comes after members of the public helped save the lives of three dolphins that washed ashore at a bay in Orkney.

BDMLR said local residents sprang into action at the end of July after a trio of Risso’s dolphins became stranded on the shore.

They said they “did an incredible job” of administering first aid until medics arrived from the mainland, when the dolphins were refloated back into the water safely.

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