Swarm of 10,000 bees settles on bike outside Louvre in Paris

A swarm of at least 10,000 bees has been removed from under the saddle of a bicycle parked outside a metro station in front of the Louvre museum in Paris.

The swarm settled on the bike shortly after it was locked to the railings of the Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre metro on Saturday afternoon.

Paris transport officials then closed the metro entrance while a local Parisian beekeeper was called in to collect the insects.

"It was certainly in an unusual place, right next to the entrance to a metro," said Volkan Tanaci, who reached the scene by bike.

"It was a real cluster of bees, and probably there was a queen bee right in the middle," the urban beekeeper told France Info.

The bike's owner posted the whole scene on the @ma_pauvre_lucette Instagram account, saying that "granddad's old bicycle" had barely been parked for half an hour when the swarm arrived.