A giant animatronic T-Rex, famous for photobombing pop star Nicki Minaj, was let loose at Broadway Shopping Centre amidst a gathering of excited fans.

There were gasps and squeals as the dinosaur walked amongst shoppers and posed for photos with children, during a special two day family event.

The T-Rex towers an impressive eight feet tall, measures 3.5 metres long and 1.1 metres wide, with a moving mouth, eyes and tail.

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The T-Rex in action.

Among those who had their photo taken with the prehistoric visitor were five-year-old twins Max and Zak Tillman from Sidcup.

Their mum Joanne Tillman said: “Both of them are obsessed with dinosaurs, they love Dino Dan on CITV so they’ve been really excited all week.”

Clair Course from Welling visited with son Riley Osbourne, aged five, and his friend Grace Moscrop, aged six.

She said: “They’re big dinosaur fans, they’ve been to see dinosaur zoo the play in London, and so they were really excited to come here.

“It’s been really busy so it was a lot of fun, they’ve enjoyed all the activities too.”

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ROARSOME: Max Tillman, six, Grace Moscrop, six, Riley Osborne, five, and Zak Tillman, six.

Aida Popescu, from Shooter's Hill in Greenwich Village, brought along her son Teo, aged five, niece Amelie, aged six and nephew Ianis also aged five.

She said: “It looks very real and the children were a bit scared at first!

“They got up close though and had their photo taken. It was quite an experience for them."

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DINOSAUR FUN:  Teo Popescu, five, Ianis Grama, five, and Amelie Constantim, six.

Broadway Shopping Centre manager Peter Sedge said: “The T-Rex really was huge and very realistic, it was great to see it interact with our young shoppers."

The dinosaur is being provided by CEP, an entertainment company who hire them out for parties and events, and each creature takes several days to build from scratch.

The handmade dinosaur’s previous appearances include an occasion when it stole the show at last year’s Europe Music Awards hosted by MTV.

Operated from inside the costume, it managed to take control of the stage at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow in November and posed for a selfie with Nicki Minaj, shocking the chart-topping rap star.