A train was briefly delayed when a scorpion was found scurrying on the floors of a carriage.

The pet arachnid escaped from an ice cream container on the London to Edinburgh Virgin Trains East Coast service.

Rail passengers were held up for eight minutes at Peterborough station when transport police boarded.

British journalist Harry Horton live-tweeted the episode and later said he first noticed something strange when seated passengers started standing up and retreating.

“There was something going on at the end of the carriage and I couldn’t quite see what it was,” said Mr Horton.

“A lot of the passengers were up on their feet. All of a sudden a couple came down to my end [and] they said there’s a scorpion on the loose.”

The Washington DC-based reporter said he and around 20 others had to evacuate the carriage on Sunday and that a guard asked if there were “any vets on board the train to help out”.

The scorpion was apparently returned to the container but the female owner, in a rush to get to Newark-on-Trent, gave up the desert-dwelling predator to police.

“We weren’t quite clear why she had [it],” said Mr Horton.

“The police basically said to her, you’re either getting off here with your scorpion or we’re taking your scorpion from you.”

“In the end, she decided to give up the scorpion and give it to the police.”

A British Transport Police spokesman said: “We were called at 2.56pm to a Virgin train from King’s Cross to Edinburgh and we met the train at Peterborough.

“A scorpion had escaped from a passenger’s bag, but it had been recaptured quickly and put in an ice cream box.

“We have taken the scorpion to an exotic pet rescue in Peterborough.”