Ice hockey fans throw more than 74,500 stuffed animals onto rink in annual 'teddy bear toss'

Tens of thousands of stuffed animals rained down onto the ice at the Giant Center during a hockey match between Hershey Bears and Lehigh Valley on Sunday.

The GIANT Teddy Bear Toss saw the match in Pennsylvania paused for 50 minutes as a sold-out arena threw cuddly bears and stuffed toys for players and volunteers to collect for local charities.

The annual event saw yet another record broken, with the fans throwing 74,599 stuffed animals onto the ice.

They even broke their previous record of 67,309 stuffed animals thrown during the event last year.

Fans are encouraged to bring along cuddly bears to throw onto the ice after the Bears score their first goal.

The Hershey Bears took the social media to not only thank fans for the record donations, but to show them having some fun with them.

Photos show some of their players getting buried in the pile.

The Hershey Bears will be donating the stuffed animals to over 35 local charities, which are part of the club's Hershey Bears Cares programme, including Hershey Food Bank and Vista Autism Services.

Since the tradition started in 2001, the teddy bear toss has collected over 464,107 toys, which have been given to children throughout Pennsylvania, with fans told that there is "no limit to how many teddy bears you can bring."

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