Thousands of bees unexpectedly swarm town as local residents are warned to avoid the area

Thousands of bees swarmed a Welsh town over the weekend with people being warned to avoid the area.

The insects settled for about an hour on the bonnet of a van in Maesteg on Sunday (June 12) afternoon.

Meanwhile, hundreds more flew down the road, settled on the ground and attached themselves to other cars.

"I could see a couple at first and then suddenly could see a massive swarm of them moving down."

The sudden takeover caused drivers to roll up their windows and residents to run away, with locals unsure as to where the bees came from.

The van was parked on the corner of St Michael's Road and Station Hill. The owner of the van was alerted and managed to get into the vehicle and disperse the bees by driving around.

Local county councillor Ross Penhale-Thomas for Maesteg West shared a post on a community Facebook group advising people to avoid the area.

He explained: "A resident alerted me to a swarm that had attached itself to a vehicle in the area.

"On checking it out, there were hundreds flying in the air and on the ground - and I would estimate a few thousand attached to the bonnet and grille of the van. They were originally thought to be wasps - but wasps don’t usually swarm."

Local resident Ffion Evans was driving her step-daughter home at the time when "suddenly they just appeared" on the street.

She said: "I could see a couple at first and then suddenly could see a massive swarm of them moving down the road, then they started to stick to the floor.

"Cars were driving through with windows open, quickly putting them up but hundreds were already stuck to their cars. As we left the area we warned other drivers to put their windows up."

Ffion said she had never seen anything like this before in Maesteg: "You could see people coming out of houses to look. One girl even walked to the bottom of the street, realised what it was and ran back.