A mother feared she could lose her leg after being bitten by what is believed to have been a false widow spider.

Shireen Larsen, of Enfield Town, saw her leg swell to almost twice the size and was left in hospital after being bitten in the beer garden of the Crown and Horseshoe pub, in Horseshoe Lane, Enfield.

The infection caused her to start vomiting and her leg turned black and yellow with bulbous blisters swelling across her leg.

Speaking to the Enfield Independent, Ms Larsen said she felt a tingling and then a numbness in her leg before the infection took hold.

She said: "I was sitting in the beer garden while my daughter and my friend’s child were playing and I felt a sharp bite on my leg. I brushed the spider off immediately and my leg started to go numb and felt itchy.

"My condition deteriorated and I started vomiting and huge blisters swelled up on my leg."

The bite is the second known incident of a venomous spider in Enfield after a girl feared she would lose her hand after being bitten in Cineworld, Southbury Road, in January.

Despite being given antibiotics, Ms Larsen’s condition soon got worse with her leg doubling in size.

She said: "I had to go to the hospital. I was completely petrified; I thought I was going to lose my leg or something worse because of the bite.

"At the hospital, the bed was not working properly so I had to prop up my leg with a stool which meant I had a very uncomfortable night’s sleep."

Still struggling to walk, Ms Larsen is now out of hospital and has been prescribed ten different types of medication. However, she admitted that she could not tell if it was a false widow, Britain’s most venomous spider.

The Steatoda nobilis - or false widow spider - resembles the venomous black widow. It is native to the Canary Islands where it is thought to have spread across Europe and into the UK. The sting is similar to a wasp or bee sting but can lead to a swelling and blisters in very rare cases.

Ms Larsen added: "I don’t know if it was a false widow or not but the people at the hospital said they had never seen a bite like it before. It was a small dark brown or black spider but it was hard to tell because it was night time.

"I am originally from Zimbabwe and I have seen all sorts of spiders out there but this is the first in this country. You can still see the bite on my leg even now.

"I think people should be made aware that these spiders are out there in Enfield and people should be on the lookout."