Building workers find black widow

The black widow spider can deliver a painful bite

A deadly black widow spider gave Northumberland factory workers a shock when it crawled out of a delivery box.

The South American stowaway hid in a crate of mechanical parts bound for Cramlington building firm Miller UK.

Staff managed to corner the poisonous spider and trapped it in a plastic box before it was taken to experts at Durham University.

Black widows are one of the most poisonous spiders in the world, although their bites are rarely fatal.

Dean Gibson, one of the workers who discovered the spider, said: "We got a container and chased it around the bottom of a crate for a while.

"We used the internet to identify it and were quite shocked when we found out what it was."