The Diana Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park - which has long been a popular place to cool down in hot weather - has been kept dry all summer due to a technical fault.

Royal Parks, the charity that maintains the central London park, apologised to visitors who found it without water "particularly given the prolonged high temperatures we've been experiencing".

The fountain opened in 2004 in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales who died nearly seven years earlier.

The closure was initially triggered by a mechanical breakdown in the pump that draws water from the local borehole. The pump was fixed, but software used to control the system then failed, preventing the water supply from being restored.

The closure was publicly announced by Royal Parks on 1 July.

The charity's spokesperson acknowledged that the fountain had "remained dry for longer than we hoped" while specialist teams worked to resolve the software issue.

The same water supply network feeds several other locations across the capital's Royal Parks, compounding broader operational pressures faced by maintenance staff over the summer.

The memorial undergoes regular year-round maintenance and investment, with officials expecting water to begin flowing again "in the next few weeks".

It is not the first time the £3.6m memorial fountain, which was officially opened by the late Queen Elizabeth in July 2004, has had to shut down.

Just weeks after it opened, it closed temporarily after three visitors slipped and hurt themselves while paddling.

In January 2005, the memorial closed for four months' renovation work, primarily to tackle problems of flooding and waterlogged ground around the site.

The following summer, ministers blamed members of the public who littered and caused drains to block. This caused a 10 day closure.

Additional reporting by Ewan Somerville.