A woman has spoken of her horror at finding a spider nest attached to a pack of bananas she bought from a Tesco store.

The Margate resident went to Tesco Extra in Broadstairs at 11pm last night after finishing work.

After the she returned home and was unpacking the fruit into a bowl, she realised something was attached to the bananas, which came out of a sealed packet.

She said: "I was a bit scared when I found them, I took the wrapper off and there was something attached to them that looked like a wart.

"After going upstairs to get changed I came back down and some of them had began to hatch, then I realised it was a spider nest.

"I lifted them up and there was a spider hanging down, I was freaked out and I poured boiling water all over them.

"I am still a bit scared of the kitchen area and I have bleached everything."

The woman said it was lucky that she went to Tesco late last night because normally her 13-year-old son helps her unpack the shopping and puts fruit in the bowl.

She added: "It is tradition that he helps me unpack the shopping but he would never have checked the bananas or realised there was spiders on them before putting them in the bowl.

"They would have been all over my house if he had, they started hatching as soon as I got them home."

She then tweeted Tesco about the incident with a picture of the nest. Nine hours later a reply was sent back suggesting she took the "foreign body" to a customer service desk for further investigation.

Tesco has since offered to refund her the 80p she paid for the bananas on a gift card.

A Tesco spokesman said: "We sell millions of bananas every week and our growers work hard to clean and inspect all our fruit carefully.

"However, this sort of thing can happen on very rare occasions.

"We have apologised to her and are investigating the complaint."