A SWARM of bees terrorised shoppers and pedestrians in Worcester.

Shopkeepers had to shut doors and windows and people walking along Upper Tything had to run for cover as the cloud of bees proved a menace just before noon yesterday.

One onlooker said he heard people screaming as they tried to get away from the threatening swarm.

The environmental health department at Worcester City Council received calls from the public but it was unable to say where the insects had come from.

People waiting at a pedestrian crossing were the worst affected.

Joy Postgate, from Scales Pharmacy on Upper Tything, called the environmental health department after a passer-by saw the bees and came into the shop.

She said most of the insects had settled on a bollard on the central section of the crossing while others swarmed around the traffic lights.

"It was spectacular because there were so many of them," said the pharmacist.

She said the bees, which were in the area for around three-and-a half-hours, did not sting anyone.

Julian Miller, of Flag Meadow Walk in Barbourne, Worcester, said he cycled straight into the swarm.

"I was terrified and other people were screaming," he said.

"It's not every day you see a cloud of bees and I couldn't get away quick enough to avoid being stung."

A spokeswoman for the environmental health department at Worcester City Council said it had received about 12 calls.

"We don't know where they came from. They just appeared," she said.

"We sent a beekeeper to solve the problem, which is our normal procedure."

A Pershore beekeeper who hit the headlines last month when he lost 30,000 bees said it was impossible that the swarm belonged to him.

He said bees would not fly more than three miles.

"They would have to be Olympian bees to have made it to Worcester," he said.