Passengers waiting to board a train at St Pancras station were briefly held up by a “suspicious” shoebox filled with live crabs.
An East Midlands train carriage was temporarily closed off on Saturday morning after some of the crustaceans managed to escape the box and had to be collected by cleaners.
The train had arrived to the central London station from Sheffield just after 8:30am.
Amused Twitter user Elise Bell posted a picture of a bucket containing the rescued crabs.
She tweeted: “I’m dead, they stopped us boarding a train at St Pancras because they found a suspicious nike shoebox left on the carriage. Turns out it was full of live crabs.”
Thankfully, passengers did not experience any delays as a result of the surprising discovery and the crabs have been reunited with their owner.
Bell, a writer, told HuffPost UK: “Wasn’t sure what was happening but there was a crowd gathered around my carriage waiting to get inside.
“And train workers got off with a scanner and a yellow bucket containing a load of live crabs.
“Asked another passenger for context and they said they had found a suspicious package (shoebox) left behind hence why the carriage was closed off.”
She added: “Credit where credit was due because the train left on time, it was more that we weren’t allowed to get on a certain few carriages prior to the crabs being taken off.”
A spokesman for East Midlands Trains said: “Some crabs which had escaped from a shoe box were discovered on a train which arrived into London St Pancras Station just after 8.30am today.
“The crabs were collected during the cleaning of the train and along with the box were reunited with their owner. There was no delay to any train services.”