Police close busy Fulham road after bees swarm on bicycle's wicker basket

Police cordoned off a major west London road after a swarm of bees made their home on a bicycle's wicker basket.

Around 500 bees descended on Fulham Palace Road on Monday morning.

Resident Claire Shirley, 56, whose father used to be a beekeeper, assisted police in dealing with the swarm.

She said: “Originally we thought it was a beehive, we think there were 500 bees and the police had to cordon it off in the end, it’s been quite a Monday.

The bees found a home on the wicker basket
Claire Shirley

“People were just walking straight past it and we were worried that someone might have been stung.”

Bee stings do not usually cause a serious reaction but can cause anaphylactic shock for those with allergies.

Ms Shirley added: “The police wanted to turn the bike upside down and tip all the bees out but they couldn’t do that because the bike was locked.

Police cordoned off the area while the incident was being dealt with
Claire Shirley

“Eventually a bee keeper had to come down and he gently brushed the bees off.”

A Met Police spokesman confirmed they were called to Fulham Palace Road at 11.54am to reports of a large swarm of bees.

A cordon was placed around the bees while the incident was being dealt with. It was lifted at about 2.30pm.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT