The garden centre section of a Kent branch of B&Q had to close when a giant swarm of honey bees took a fancy to a hanging basket.
An estimated 10,000 of the insects made a beeline for the flowery container, causing alarm amongst customers at the Larkfield B&Q.

The outlet closed its garden section for the day while bee experts built a special hive to create a diversion. They checked up on the bees' welfare, and the hive was taken away from the store in the evening.

A bee expert said: "It's not unusual for them to swarm in August -the most likely explanation is that they got overcrowded.

"It's probable they made a strong colony earlier in the year and that a number of them followed the new queen."

Meanwhile, Larkfield store manager Nik Fowden said that the loss of a day's garden centre business came second to the wellbeing of the bees.

"We're happy to protect a protected species and our customers' safety, and rescuing bees is more important to us," he commented.