Passengers flee swarm of crickets

This was posted to the [url=http://groups.yahoo.com/group/beastwatchuk/]Beastwatch UK[/url] discussion list and originates from the BBC reported 3rd December: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/north_yorkshire/4066811.stm

[quote:70008b2937]
Hundreds of crickets forced a train to be evacuated when they swarmed through a carriage on a cross country service.
More than 150 passengers had to leave the Virgin Voyager travelling from Newcastle upon Tyne to Cardiff after a carrier bag full of insects was found.

British Transport Police were called to investigate the incident at York where most of the insects flew away.

A Virgin Trains spokesman said: "It's definitely a case of crickets without tickets."

The train continued to Derby where it was fumigated and passengers were transferred to another train.
Between Darlington and Newcastle the train manager discovered a carrier bag full of crickets which had split open in coach D," said the spokesman.

"Our staff were basically running around trying to recapture the crickets, which were jumping everywhere.

"But there were too many and it was impossible to capture them, so it was decided to take the train out of service."

He said he could only but speculate as to why the crickets were on Thursday's 14.21 service.

He said they may have been destined to be food for an exotic pet and played down suggestions they might have been left maliciously.

BBC News 3rd December 2004

[/quote:70008b2937]