An Austrian supermarket was evacuated after the store manager reportedly spotted a banana-loving spider capable of causing permanent erections in men.

The Penny shop in Krems an der Donau, 45 miles west of Vienna, remains closed since Tuesday over fears of the four-inch black and red spider.

Emergency services were called and warn the spider, still at large, may have been a highly venomous Brazilian Wandering Spider, known to reach Europe by hiding in bunches of bananas.

The creature is one of the planet’s most venomous spiders, and bites can be fatal after causing hypothermia, blurred vision, convulsions and, in some cases, erections. The spider’s venom is even being studied for use in erectile dysfunction treatments after it was found that a bite from one of the spiders can give male victims a painful four-hour erection.

An exterminator has been called and the banana crates in the store have been sealed, but reports say the shop will likely remain closed until next week.

A spokesman for the Rewe retail group said that ‘comprehensive cleaning and disinfection measures’ are now under way to prepare the store for reopening. 

But authorities added that: ‘Despite an extensive search, no spiders have been found to date.’

The size and colouring of the ‘unidentifiable’ spider led authorities to believe it was a Brazilian Wandering Spider, capable of emitting a deadly neurotoxin.

Some 4,000 people are bitten by the arachnid each year, with 0.5 per cent of bites leading to death.

Much has been done to develop an effective anti-venom, reducing the likelihood of death. 

But just one bite from the spider can also cause severe cramping and tachycardia, or an increased heart rate. 

The Brazilian Wandering spider appears in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s most venomous arachnid. 

Its scientific name – Phoneutria – is Greek for ‘murderess’. 

They are known as the wandering spider because they do not build webs, but instead walk the jungle floor at night looking for prey.

In urban areas, they often take refuge in houses and cars, where they are easily disturbed by humans. 

In 2021, taxi driver Joe Stein found one of the spiders among a bunch of bananas purchased from a Sainsbury’s in West Wickham, Bromley.

He opened the bag to find a two-inch ‘dark mass’ hanging from the fruit and was terrified to see it twitch. 

Mr Stein, from Beckenham, Kent, said: ‘I sort of had to refocus my eyes so I could see his big bony, hairy legs. It was a bit shocking!

‘Obviously I was shocked, my girlfriend was a bit shocked, finding out it was a venomous spider if alive.

‘Luckily I think it was dead, but it was enough to make us both jump and feel on edge.

In 2015, a British family were left fearing one of the spiders had disappeared in their house after noticing a suspicious white spider cocoon on a bunch of bananas.

Michaela Egan from Rainham, Essex posted an image on her Facebook page and friends suggested it could be a Brazilian Wandering spider.

The mother-of-two immediately put it in a sealed bag and returned it to the Rainham Tesco where staff offered her a full refund before sending the banana off to be tested.

The full-time mother said that she could have easily handed the banana to her daughter for her packed lunch.

Shocking footage shows the moment a gang of women corner and brutally attack a British tourist to nab his belongings as he walks along a busy street in the heart of Colombia’s drug capital.

The dramatic mugging was caught on CCTV on Friday, at a time when the number of tourists reporting robberies is on the rise in Medellin.

Two of the women, who initially look unassuming donning mini-skirts and crop tops, can be seen identifying their target, who is oblivious to the looming danger, as he walks past.

They start to trail their victim as he winds his way through the bustling street, a corner approaching Berrio Park, before confronting him, much to the man’s surprise.

The two muggers then launch a frenzied attack on the Brit, before another woman comes to join in, bashing him over the head and tugging at his backpack incessantly.

The man desperately tries to fight the women off, but the group successfully stole his ‘high-end’ mobile phone, El Tiempo reports.

Surveillance footage shows the women going up to the man and speaking to him for a few seconds, with one grabbing his backpack.

He tries to pull away, but the two women follow him closely and continue to grab at his bag. He tries to push them off, and a fight ensues. 

The attack appears to go on for at least a minute, and sees the group swirl across the street as they battle for the tourists’ belongings.

Stunned onlookers watch on and appear to make no effort to intervene as the man faces an onslaught from all angles.

The women grab the man by his backpack as he quickly tries to reverse backwards, pulling them along with him. 

He then almost swings the women around as they clutch on to his backpack, trying to fling them off in self-defence.

Police were quickly called to the scene and were able to arrest the women, with more video released by cops showing the three suspects being piled into a car.

In a roughly translated statement, Major Adrian Chacon, Inspection Officer of the Valle de Aburrá Metropolitan Police said that police conducted an in-depth investigation following the incident.

‘A meticulous follow-up began through the city’s security cameras, where in the same sector the camera viewers identified the three women, notifying the police units of the quadrant, where they were intercepted, captured for the crime of theft.’

They said that the stolen items were returned to the foreigner.

It comes around 48 hours after two more foreign travellers caught their mugging, which took place in broad daylight, on video.

The victims, said to be a Polish couple, while touring one of the tutelary hills of the Antioquia capital was recorded, before the violent attack cuts the video short.

The man and the woman, whose names have not been released, were trekking through the Cerro El Volador, a ridge in Medellin on Wednesday, when a man approached them from behind with a sharp object.

The man was talking to the camera in his native language while he recorded them, which is when one of the suspects can be seen running up to them from behind.

A suspect placed his hand around the woman’s mouth and his accomplice placed the man in a chokehold as the phone fell to the ground and the video recording stopped.

Later, the man posted a second video showing himself covered in blood. 

There have so far been no arrests, despite appeals from the Mayor of Medellin.

The first quarter of the 2023 saw 230 complaints of theft from tourists in Medllin, the capital of Antioquia, The Tourism Observatory of the Personería de Medellín.

This amounts to an increase of 666 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, El Tiempo reports.

Last month, a British tourist died after he was attacked by muggers while hiking along a mountain trail in Colombia.

He is believed to have been hit over the head with the butt of a gun by muggers who stole his belongings after he hiked to the Hill of Three Crosses in Medellin.

The victim, named locally as Kyle MacKenzie, was found critically injured at the bottom of the mountain trail where he was abandoned by the muggers after being attacked.

He was discovered two days after going missing and rushed to hospital in a critical condition before succumbing to his multiple injuries which included head wounds.

The victim has been described locally as a Swedish-born man who had a British passport.

The mugging victim has been described as the first foreign person to have been murdered in Medellin so far this year, following 10 murders of foreigners last year in Medellin. 

The city is no stranger to violent crime, and was once dubbed the murder capital of the world as violence plagued the streets during the reign of the Medellin drug cartel.

Ruled by possibly the most notorious drug lord in history, Pablo Escobar, Medellin witnessed 6,349 killings in 1991, a murder rate of 380 per 100,000 people.

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Published: 18:26 EDT, 2 June 2023 | Updated: 19:52 EDT, 2 June 2023