Kensington Palace is under pressure to answer questions about whether its photograph of the Princess of Wales was digitally altered after Britain’s leading news agency said its concerns had been met with silence.

The PA news agency has become the latest to withdraw the image from its picture service after “kill notices” were issued by Getty, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Shutterstock and Reuters on Sunday.

A spokesperson for the UK’s national news agency said: “Like other news agencies, PA Media issued the handout image provided by Kensington Palace of the Princess of Wales and her children in good faith yesterday.

“We became aware of concerns about the image and we carried a report about it last night, and made clear that we were seeking urgent clarification about the image from Kensington Palace. In the absence of that clarification, we are killing the image from our picture service.”

The image of Kate and her children, said by the palace to have been taken by the Prince of Wales, was posted on social media. Kensington Palace has not yet commented on the concerns raised about the picture.

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