This is the moment when a motorist’s pristine car becomes a four-wheel-hive as a swarm of thousands of honey bees settle on it.

FOUR-WHEEL-HIVE: Swarm Makes Bee Line For Parked Car from News X on Vimeo.

The baffled driver had popped out to the shops in Nanyang City, Henan Province, China, on 8th April.

But when the driver came back to his car he found a swarm of bees huddled around his boot.

Video footage of the swarm – later shared on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok by passer-by Mr Wan – shows them huddled around the boot lid.

Local media reported that after waiting 30 minutes for emergency services to help the driver gave up and put a coat over his head and dashed back into the vehicle.

Then, said Wan, he drove off with them still attached to the car.

Social media users, though, criticised the driver saying he was putting pedestrians at risk.

And some suggested that the bees could have been after something sweet he had left in the boot.

In fact, the swarm would have been following a honey bee queen as she left an old hive looking for a new territory to live in.

While scout bees search for new locations the resting queen is surrounded by her swarm to protect her until a new home has been found and they move on.