Thousands of bees swarmed a small delivery business, driving out employees and customers in fear.

Phone footage captured outside the SF express delivery service in Maoming, a largely agricultural city located in China’s south-eastern Guangdong Province, shows the swarm taking over the entire premises.

Several men could be seen helplessly standing outside the building, with nothing to do but wait for the bees to retreat into a wooden box.

Confused passersby also could not help but stop and stare.

Some locals who witnessed the scene reportedly wondered if someone had tried to ship the bees through the delivery service.

However, the owner of the service later clarified the situation, telling local media: “Bees from the nearby apiary flew into the shop.”

Later, they were led away using a bee box, the owner said.

The incident also attracted widespread attention on social media, after the video was shared on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, on 27th March.

One user titled ‘Weiwei Seafood’ said: “The SF Express boss was confused.”

Another, called ‘User 2097009196772’, wrote: “Does this [shipment] belong in the ‘fresh food’ category?”

And ‘Little Kaixing is in Pangdonglai’ commented: “SF Express, [offering] a ‘sweet’ deal.”