Santa is known for getting stuck up the chimney - but families looked on as he got jammed while abseiling down the side of Dickens World.

Dozens of people witnessed the amusing incident at the Chatham Maritime tourist attraction's Christmas launch event.

And they watched as Father Christmas chopped off his own beard that had become trapped in the ropes.

He was due to abseil down from the roof to greet children, near the Dockside Outlet Centre, on Sunday, as the attraction officially opened its Winter Wonderland experience.

But he did not get very far before his beard became tangled up in the ropes.

One woman, who had taken her children to meet Santa, said: "His foot then got stuck and he had to chop off his beard with a knife."

Other people in the crowd said Santa got his beard stuck in the abseil ropes and he had to cut the beard with scissors.

A spokesman for the attraction denied eye-witness reports that Santa had been injured in the incident.

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A Dickens World spokesman confirmed the Santa they employed for the day had got his beard stuck in the ropes.

He said he did not suffer any injuries during the incident and was only stuck for about five minutes.

Video: The moment Santa got stuck on the side of Dickens World - and had to cut off his beard

Santa also caused a stir in Rochester last month when someone reported seeing a man hanging from a window at Rochester Castle.

When police arrived, they discovered the "man" was in fact a life-sized Santa Claus figure put there as a publicity stunt to encourage people to sign up to this year's Santa Fun Run.

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