Woman horrified to find 18 live scorpions in her holiday suitcase

When they say tourists want to bring a piece of their holiday back with them, this isn't quite what they mean...

An Austrian woman received an unpleasant surprise when she opened her luggage after returning from a holiday in Croatia where she found 18 scorpions living inside her suitcase.

As soon as she discovered the scorpion family when unpacking her belongings after her trip to the Adriatic coast, the woman from Natternbach, in Upper Austria, contacted animal control, Newsweek reported.

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It wasn't just one scorpion the unidentified woman stumbled upon but a mother and her babies as seen in the photo posted by animal rescue centre Tierhilfe Gusental.

The arachnids were rescued and are to be returned to their native Croatia, a Tierhilfe Gusental employee told Upper Austria News.

They added how the woman did "the right thing" by contacting them as due to the current temperatures in Austria, the scorpions "could probably multiply well," in a place they "don't belong."

"This afternoon we were contacted by a lady from Natternbach, because stowaways have nested in the luggage of their Croatia trip," the charity wrote in a Facebook post about the matter.

"More precisely, a scorpion with cubs. The animals were secured and handed over to us. They are currently in the Linz animal shelter until they start their return journey."

Luckily for the woman, none of the five species of scorpion in Croatia are lethal to humans - but a sting from one can still cause swelling, redness, pain, tingling and numbness around the sting spot, it says on the Royal Croatian Tours website.

It's not the first time a scorpion has been rescued in Austria, according to The Mirror as it reported how another woman received a fright when she found a scorpion in her flat in Linz three weeks after she returned home from a trip to Croatia.

A similar incident also happened in September last year when animal rescue was called out in Upper Austria to remove a scorpion, the same publication reported.

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