A McDonald’s was forced to shut temporarily after a customer brought live insects onto the premises to feed a pet snake.

Staff at the restaurant in The Drove Retail Park, Newhaven, had to close the site for several hours yesterday evening following the incident.

A spokesman from McDonald’s said the restaurant reopened the same evening after a full clean and pest control experts were called in today to carry out another check.

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“On Friday evening, we were made aware that a customer had entered our Newhaven restaurant with live insects to feed a pet snake,” said the spokesman.

“As soon as we were made aware, we closed the restaurant and asked the customer to leave.

“We reopened later in the evening having carried out a thorough clean of the restaurant. Pest control experts have been called to the restaurant today to carry out precautionary checks.”