Multimedia Background image for 'La Machine - the spider transported across town'

THE arrival of the mysterious giant spider in Liverpool has left many arachnophobics too terrified to enter the city.

Anxiety UK received calls from panic stricken city centre workers, mothers and visitors who had seen the spider on Lime Street.

One mother from Wirral, who rang the helpline yesterday afternoon, anonymously, said: “I went to pick up my 10-year-old daughter and found her petrified, she was crying and shaking.

“I thought she’d been attacked but she said she was scared of the spider, I looked up and I was scared, I was filled with goosebumps.”

Nicky Lidbetter, chief executive of Anxiety UK, said the creation of a giant spider was insensitive to the huge number of people with arachnophobia or spiderphobia.

She said: “We have a number of calls and text messages to our helpline from extremely distressed people in Liverpool.

“La Machine was meant to provoke a response and it has done, at the expense of anxiety sufferers.

“People are affected in different ways, they see the spider and think they are going to die or are going crazy.”

A spokesman for Liverpool City Council and Culture Company, said: “The feedback to the spider has been overwhelmingly positive and we are expecting thousands of visitors to flock into the city.”

Contact Anxiety UK on 08444 775 774.