A WORKER at Chandler's Ford's Asda hypermarket has been bitten by a spider hidden in a bunch of bananas.

Today the woman was recovering at home after her ordeal.

Store bosses believe the spider arrived in a bag of bananas, although they were unable to say which country the fruit had come from.

An Asda spokesman said: "A customer saw it and the produce worker went to pick the bag up.

"The spider bit her through the bag and she fainted more or less on the spot. I think it was just the shock of it."

The store worker, who has not been named, was taken to hospital where she underwent tests yesterday.

She is expected back at work tomorrow.

The spokesman said tests had shown that the spider - which was taken to a zoo but has not yet been identified - was not poisonous.

Southampton University expert Dave Goulson said no one in Britain had ever died from a spider bite.

The lecturer at the ecology department at the university said: "If the spider was poisonous you would need an anti-venom for the right spider to be used within a few hours."

But he added that medical staff had probably treated the woman with antihistamines and immunosuppressants.

He said: "With a spider bite, the safest thing to do is take the person to hospital so that they can be checked over. There are dangerous spiders in the world, but there are few which are deadly."