Pub chef bitten by giant spider

A pub chef from Somerset was lucky to survive after he was bitten twice by South America's deadliest spider.

Matthew Stevens was bitten by the giant spider as he was cleaning a freezer at the Quantock Gateway pub in Bridgwater where he works.

Stevens grabbed a dishcloth where the 5in-long spider was hiding and it bit his hand twice before falling back into the freezer, where it remained, stunned.

Suffering from dizziness and the shakes, Stevens was taken to his local community hospital but was discharged and advised to go home and rest.

It was only later in the evening when he collapsed that his partner, Cara McSweeney, called an ambulance and he was taken to Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton.

Luckily, Stevens had taken a photo of the deadly arachnid with his mobile phone and experts from Bristol Zoo were able to identify it as a Brazilian Wandering Spider.

Although the right antidote was then given, it was a week before Stevens fully recovered.

Stevens told The Times: "I thought I wasn't going to make it. My chest was so tight I could hardly breathe. The doctors didn't know what type of spider it was but I'd got a picture of it on my phone and they sent it to Bristol Zoo to identify it."

The spider, which is thought to have entered the country in a bunch of bananas, was subsequently caught.