"Horrific": Swarms Of Spiders And Snakes Emerge In Flood-Hit Australia

The relentless week-long downpour has soaked most of New South Wales

Heavy rains along Australia's east coast over the weekend have brought the worst flooding in half a century in some areas. The record-breaking floods have caused a mass animal exodus to higher ground, reports CNN, with spiders in particular swarming out to escape the floodwater. Horrifying images that have gone viral on social media show hundreds of spiders trying to scuttle to safety. One of the most viral images was captured by Matt Lovenfosse, who saw a swarm of spiders running away from the rising waters of Kinchela Creek on Monday. "All the brown you can see is Spiders trying to beat the flood water," he wrote while sharing the picture on Facebook yesterday. The picture has gone viral on social media, racking up more than 38,000 'shares' on Facebook alone. It has also made its way to Twitter, where many branded it the "stuff of nightmares".