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Couple ‘held hostage’ in their car by a GIANT huntsman spider

A couple have gone viral after they documented their hilarious struggle as they were 'held hostage' in their car - by a GIANT Huntsman spider.

Shane Ivory, 29, and Charlotte Jack, 30, were driving when the enormous arachnid began began clambouring across the top of the car windscreen before disappearing onto the roof.

The panicked couple knew they had to pull over to locate the beast before they could continue their trip in Cairns, North Queensland, Australia.

They began filming as they debated who should get out of the car to check - before Charlotte plucked up the courage to bolted out - only to find the monster spider had vanished.

The pair then carried on with their journey on the edge of their seats waiting for the arachnid to surprise them again.

Although they never found this huntsman, a few days later they spotted a smaller - but still terrifying - spider that had made itself comfy on their rooftop tent.

The pair, who are both full-time travelers living in the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, said they had spotted the odd huntsman in the two months they’ve been exploring Australia - but never anything like this.

Charlotte said: “Usually you only see them at home, so at least you have the time and space to remove the spider kindly.

“When we found the one on our tent, we were so worried it would get into our bed. It also disappeared for a couple of days until I pulled back the cover and it came running right towards my face!

“Since then we’ve been pretty lucky though with no more big spiders.

“I wouldn’t say we have arachnophobia, but we’ve never reacted like this - even Shane’s mum told him to stop being a wuss!”

They posted the hilarious incident to the social media app TikTok and got over two million views - which they put down to people’s mutual fear of all creepy crawlies.

Charlotte added: “We knew how crazy TikTok could get sometimes, but we never expected a reaction like this!

“A collective fear of spiders, with a bit of humour sprinkled on, seems to be the perfect recipe.

“It was wild trying to respond to every comment - so many people kept saying it would just crawl out the vents one day!

“People told us to go to the car wash, but we have a swag and a toolbox on the roof that it could have crawled into, so even a car wash wouldn’t have helped.

“It’s the feeling that one day it could reappear that was really scary.”

Huntsman spiders are large, fast arachnids that hunt their prey instead of building a web, they often wander into people’s homes and garages.

Charlotte noted that although it’s not normal to have them roaming around your car whilst driving, huntsman spiders are one of the more common large insects in Australia.

She said: “We definitely don’t kill them as, at the end of the day, they are harmless and actually eat a lot of other bugs that you don't really want around.

“Also they are terrified of humans and will often run away, so really there is no logical reason to be scared!”