Scorpion hiding in Vietnamese fruit basket stings young girl

City authorities told Cologne-based tabloid Express the girl is recovering from the sting, to which she had an allergic reaction. Her parents rushed her to the university children’s clinic along with the scorpion, so that doctors would know exactly how dangerous it was.

It is believed the scorpion was in the basket when it was packaged in Vietnam and travelled all the way to Germany with the family’s visitors. The stowaway was then taken to a reptile zoo in nearby Königswinter owned by Marlies Blumenthal.

“This was a completely new species to me,” Blumenthal told Express. “I passed the creature on to other experts. I wasn’t comfortable keeping it here.”

Most scorpion species can only produce enough venom to cause a minor reaction, like that of a bee sting. Of the estimated 1,500 scorpion species, only 50 are considered dangerous to humans and only half of those produce venom that can be deadly. Still, for every deadly snake bite, 10 people die from scorpion stings.