Ikea Bans Hide-And-Seek In Stores - Report

Ikea has reportedly banned thousands of people from playing hide-and-seek in its stores in the Netherlands.

The retailer has stopped several events at Dutch stores for safety reasons after thousands took part in the children's game at a store in Belgium last summer, Bloomberg reports.

Ikea Group spokeswoman Martina Smedberg is quoted by the news organisation as saying: "It's hard to control.

"We need to make sure people are safe in our stores and that's hard to do if we don't even know where they are."

Tens of thousands of people had said they were attending games of hide-and-seek at stores in Eindhoven, Amsterdam and Utrecht.

The organisers are now looking for new locations for the games, Bloomberg said.

The company gave permission for one game of hide-and-seek at a store in Wilrijk, Belgium, back in July.

Elise De Rijck, who organised the event, told Bloomberg people were hiding in fridges, under stuffed toys, under blue Ikea shopping bags and in the storage space beneath beds.

She said: "Sometimes it's fun just to do some childish things. Ikea is like an extremely large living room.

"We played hide-and-seek the whole day.

"It was really exhausting, but so much fun."

Ikea spokeswoman Annelies Nauwelaerts said around 500 people took part.

Sky News has contacted Ikea for comment.