A swarm of honey bees brought traffic to a standstill and forced office workers and pedestrians to dive for cover in Scotland�s largest city yesterday.
Caroline Wilson
A swarm of honey bees brought traffic to a standstill and forced office workers and pedestrians to dive for cover in Scotland's largest city yesterday.
The unusual visitation descended on Glasgow's West Regent Street shortly after 3pm, causing a minor public panic.
Passers-by were forced to flee on to the road to avoid the swarm before the bees settled on a bus timetable sign outside a solicitors' office.
The road was cordoned off and police diverted pedestrians, cars and buses from the scene. Workers and residents were advised by police not to leave their buildings until the invasion had been dealt with.
The road was closed at the junction with Hope Street for most of the afternoon.
Environmental health officers from Glasgow City Council desperately tried to call beekeepers to help move the bees without having to destroy them.
They were heading towards having to "make a decision" when a passerby came to the rescue.
The swarm was safely contained in a box and transported out of Glasgow and into the care of a registered beekeeper.
Martin Williams and Lauren Mayberry
The characteristic piercing drone from a swirling swarm of bees is one of nature's most fascinating phenomena.
But the buzz that hit Glasgow city centre yesterday conjured comparisons from some onlookers to Irwin Allen's hit 70s sci-fi film The Swarm.
However, experts say the killer bees seen in films do not occur in Britain, and left alone the honey bees would have been no problem to anyone.
The swarm that caused a panic at around 3pm in West Regent Street is now being looked after by a beekeeper after a local expert assisted city environmental health officers in containing the bees in a box before transporting them away.
Jacqui Sim, of Ross Harper solicitors, said: "It was indescribable. They were flying all about the place.
"People walking past had to walk into the middle of the road just to avoid them.
"They all gradually started to gather around the sign holding the timetable, then worked their way up to form a mass at the top."
Workers and residents were advised by police not to leave their buildings until the invasion had been dealt with.
The road was closed at the junction between Hope Street for most of the afternoon.
However, the British Beekeepers' Association (BBKA) said the closure of roads was possibly an overreaction and was indicative of a misconception about the danger posed by bees.
Left alone, a swarm is quite harmless, and should move on in a day or so.
Christine Gray, spokeswoman for the BBKA, said: "It can be alarming if you see a swarm of bees just above your head, but they are not there to attack anybody. They are not a killer swarm.
"The council obviously wanted to ensure people were not unduly alarmed but I wouldn't have closed off the street. A rope around the swarm would have been fine.
"Bees are like other creatures in the natural world, they only attack if they are provoked. If you go and pull a dog's tail you can't blame it for biting you, quite frankly."
A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: "What we did here was we were contacting beekeepers and we were making slow progress on that before someone just turned up.
"Obviously if it had gone on longer there would have been a decision had to be taken in terms of how long can a street be closed. But thankfully the beekeeper was on hand to be able to work with the swarm."
