Buzz off! Indian Wells tennis match suspended and players flee as bees swarm court

Carlos Alcaraz swatted at bees before running for cover as his match agains Alexander Zverev was postponed for nearly two hours, ITV News' Caroline Lewis reports

Swinging a tennis racket may be helpful when aiming for the ball in the hope of reaching the final of a tournament, but they're less useful when swatting a swarm of bees as Carlos Alcaraz discovered on Thursday.

The swarm descended on the semifinal of the BNP Paribas Open between Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev leading to a two-hour pause in the match in California.

Dozens of bees attached themselves to the overhead spider camera that traverses the court and a man without any protective covering used a vacuum to clean them off.

The bee vacuumer was summoned to the court with a spray bottle that he used to douse seats and the walls around the court.

The vaccumer became a fan favourite of the spectators as he spent more than an hour hoovering up the insects without wearing any protective gear.

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The bee vaccumer became a fan favourite. Credit: AP

In one clip Alcaraza can be seen running off the court as he attempts to swat away the bees while the umpire says "it appears we have a problem with bees here."

TV coverage said the match had been suspended because of a "bee invasion."

Carlos Alcaraz did eventually win the match. Credit: AP

After initially being paused for 19 minutes the game did not resume for an hour and 48 minutes, the actual play time was 1:29.

Alcaraz survived the swarm and went on to win 6-3, 6-1, the rest of the stadium was unaffected by the bees.

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