Meet the spider that refuses to die

Arachnophobes look away now.

An Australian man has filmed – in two parts – the terrifying moment a huge spider appears out of no-where inside a toilet and then refuses to be flushed away.

Frantically paddling against the water, the palm-sized arachnoid (a relatively small breed for Australia) survives by eventually curling into a small ball.

Just when you think man has won out against the spider, it crawls out of the water and makes a break for freedom.

In the second part of the video, both of which have been posted on YouTube by Barry Morrissey and viewed hundreds of times, the insect can be see scuttling around the bowl of the toilet, seemingly unaffected by the water.

Australia is home to some of the deadliest spiders on the planet. The notorious Sydney funnel-web, found around 100km around Sydney, has a bite that can cause death and serious injury to humans.

Many of the common everyday spiders are also venomous, although not life-threateningly so.

It remains unclear what type of spider was in Mr Morrissey’s toilet but it cannot have been a pleasant surprise.