These images show a Chinese woman’s badly-swollen lip after biting into a juicy watermelon that had a bee inside which stung her in the face.

The victim identified only as Ms Sheng, from the city of Huaihua in the Chinese province of Hunan, posted images of her unfortunate incident on the social network Douyin.

She said she just bought the chopped watermelon from a local merchant and went home to enjoy the juicy fruit.

However, after tucking into a chunk of watermelon, Ms Sheng said she felt a sudden pain like a needle being thrust into her lip.

She added that her lip started to swell up and took a snap to share with her followers on Douyin, which is what TikTok is called in China.

She also checked the watermelon to see what caused the searing pain in her lip, only to discover the backside of a bee sticking out of the fleshy fruit.

Ms Sheng posted an image of the bee protruding from the watermelon and resembling the seeds around it.

She added that she went to the local hospital to have the bee sting treated, and then went to see the fruit seller to explain the situation.

As a result, the merchant offered to compensate the young woman’s medical costs, according to Ms Sheng.

Contrary to popular opinion, bees do not have easy sources of food during the heat of summer when plants are no longer blossoming and are easily attracted to ripe watermelons with a nutrients and sugar content make them very attractive.

Watermelons are particularly popular because they have a high water content, which also allows the bees to drink at the same time as feeding, building up their strength for winter.

In fact, many beekeepers will even make arrangements with local watermelon suppliers to buy overripe or spoiled watermelons for their beehives.