A Primark store has reopened six hours after a swarm of bees forced it to be evacuated.

The shop in the Whitefriars shopping precinct in Canterbury was closed this morning, with security stopping people going into the store.

A beekeeper arrived to tackle the swarm, which clustered around a hanging basket outside the store.

A cordon was set up outside Primark as hundreds of bees buzzed around.

An eyewitness said: “Many of them have now gone inside a cardboard box with the queen inside.

“Some are still flying around Whitefriars.

“Lots of people have stopped to watch the beekeeper at work.”

Shoppers were evacuated from the store this morning after the swarm was discovered.

The beekeeper disturbed the cluster and managed to contain the queen bee in a cardboard box along with the majority of the workers.

But this led to the insects flying around the Whitefriars area.

And there were still some clusters of straddlers near the Primark entrance.

The beekeeper taped closed the cardboard box but left a hole for any further worker bees to go into.

He left the scene shortly before 1pm but later returned.

In an update shortly before 5pm, a Primark spokesperson confirmed the store had reopened.

"The bees have been safely relocated,” they said.

Last month, a windscreen repairman stared in disbelief as a swarm of bees surrounded the BMW he was fixing and nested inside.

The Autoglass worker was said to be “shell-shocked” as the insects buzzed around the car in Coronation Square, Lydd.

The bees are thought to have been looking for a new place to live after outgrowing their hive when they landed on the BMW 2 Series.