The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
SCorpion forCEs trAin EvACuAtion
tached to the case.
It probably took refuge in therucksackasitwas“looking for somewhere dark and dry” to give birth, Darren Mansfield, fromTheExotic Pet Refuge told the BBC.
“She dropped the case and the scorpion disappeared from sight.
“A passenger tried to catch it in anicecreamtub, butscorpions don’t like sticky, wet places so it wasn’t interested.
“Luckily, the woman’s son waseatingachickendinnerso she made him wolf that down and it was lured into that container.”
The black Guatemalan bark scorpion - which has a sting “equivalent to about three wasp stings” and is not lethal to humans - had “two or three babies last night”, Mr Mansfield said.
He added: “Now we’ve got more mouths to feed.”
Harry Horton, a passenger on the train, said he first noticed somethingstrangewhen people in the seats ahead of him started standing up and retreating.
“There was something going on at the end of the carriage and I couldn’t quite see what it was,” he said.
“A lot of the passengers were up on their feet. All of a suddenacouplecamedownto my end [and] they said there’s a scorpion on the loose.”
Therewasaneight-minute delay at Peterborough while the affected carriage containingabout20peoplewassealed off and checked.
A British Transport police spokeswomansaid: “Wewere called at 2.56pm to a Virgin train from King’s Cross to Edinburgh and we met the train at Peterborough. “A scorpion had escaped from a passenger’s bag, but it had been recaptured quickly and put in a box.”