Jelly jelly frightening!
MAN-OF-WAR ON INVASION
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BRITAIN is being invaded by thousands of huge killer jellyfish with tentacles as long as five buses.
More Portuguese man o’war than ever before are washing up on beaches across England.
Worried officials from the Marine Conservation Society say there have been more than 2,000 sightings.
Fishermen, surfers and swimmers have spotted them in Dorset, Devon, Cornwall and Wales.
And parents have been warned to take care of youngsters playing on beaches or in the sea.
Dr Peter Richardson, from the MCS, said: “It’s the biggest number we have recorded since we began keeping figures in 2003 – and they are still coming in.
“The last really big sighting was in 2012. They spread further then but we have greater numbers this time.”
Dr Richardson said that marine biologists were shocked by the invasion.
He added: “These jellyfish are not supposed to be here.” The sudden spate of hurricanes in the Atlantic could be to blame.
Dr Richardson explained: “It will be down to a combination of factors including the extreme weather we have been having.”
The Portuguese man o’war can deliver a painful sting through its venomous tentacles – similar to a cut with a knife, with rash-like symptoms developing immediately.
Doctors tell victims to pull out the agonising tentacles using tweezers or a clean stick and with hands covered in gloves.
The first person to die as a result of the jellyfish’s sting in Europe was reported near Sardinia in 2010.