Huge green-fanged spider jumped out of Noel Gallagher's guitar case

The backstage area of a Jersey music festival had to be quarantined after a large spider jumped out of Noel Gallagher's flight case. Jersey Live crew were unpacking his guitars on Sunday when they saw the "huge black spider with green fangs". Representatives of the Jersey-based Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust were on site fundraising and took the spider away for analysis.

Gallagher had yet to arrive so was said to be "unaware" of the panic. Matt Goetz, head of herpetology for Durrell, said the spider was now living in a jar on his desk. Although Mr Goetz said he thought he knew the family it came from, he wanted to double check and said it would need to be sent to an expert for analysis. Jersey Live spokeswoman, Jayne Houghton, said: "Staff immediately set about catching the spider and an area backstage had to be quarantined for nearly 20 minutes.

"Noel had not arrived at the gig and so was blissfully unaware of the panic the spider caused." Noel Gallagher has been touring around Europe over the past few months and Mr Goetz said the spider could have come from anywhere, including the UK. "You will need a spider expert, I would probably send it off to a museum to identify the species and exactly where it comes from," said Mr Goetz. Even though spiders like it exist in the UK, there are no plans to release it into the wild because it could come from somewhere like South America.

He said: "I am sure it would do no harm if we let it go but I will probably keep it here in my office for a couple of days and then maybe find somebody who would be sure about it." Mr Goetz said the quarantine would have been a sensible measure given how many places musicians visit. "If they come to Jersey from god knows where and a spider jumps out of [their cases], it could be a dangerous spider from the tropics," he said.