Girl, seven, finds 'deadly scorpion in supermarket-bought tangerines'

A seven-year-old has been left traumatised after finding what is believed to be a potentially deadly scorpion in a bag of tangerines.

The terrified youngster came across the arachnid, possibly a venomous ‘Deathstalker’, after reaching for a snack.

Her 34-year-old mum said: “She opened the netting to get out a tangerine when she saw something crawling.

“She screamed so I sent my 13-year-old son downstairs to see what was the matter and he shouted up to me ‘there’s a scorpion’. He knew what it was straight away.

“I went to the kitchen and it was scurrying round, close to the bag of fruit on a work surface.

“I froze when I saw it, but knew I had to get the kids safe.

“I don’t know now how I did it, but after I closed the door I got a knife and a plastic lunch box and managed to pick it up with the end of the blade and seal the box.

“I couldn’t risk losing sight of it or it getting behind the cupboards.”

The tangerines were bought at a branch of Morrisons in Blackburn, Lancashire.

Following the discovery, the mum-of four from Blackburn then took the scorpion to her mother’s house nearby, where it remained overnight in the container at the bottom of the garden.

She said: “I took the fruit and the sealed box, with the live scorpion in it back to Morrisons the following morning. I was there when they opened at 8am.

“They took the box off me and put it in a drawer at customer services.”

It is understood the creature was later placed in a freezer so it could be analysed by experts from the supermarket chain.

A spokesman for Morrisons said: “We have a number of measures to remove or screen for pests on farms and in this rare case one managed to get through.

“We apologise to our customer and are investigating this incident with our supplier.”

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The mum added: “Since Wednesday she won’t eat anything from the kitchen and she’s terrified of finding something in her food.

“She’s been sleeping in hers brothers’ room and they’ve been looking after her and giving her support.”

A spokesman from the insect house at Blackpool Zoo said: “This particular animal could be a Death Stalker scorpion which does have the potential to endanger life.

“As a rule of thumb, the finer the pincers, the more venomous the scorpion, and this one does have very fine pincers.

“There are more than 2,000 species of scorpion worldwide, but only a minority with the capability to cause harm with their sting.

“A sting from this scorpion could be very dangerous and it shouldn’t be handled.”