A real?estate company was suspected of releasing several thousand scorpions into apartments at a residential complex in Shenzhen to force residents to move out in order to make way for a new construction project.

A resident surnamed Chen woke up early Monday morning and discovered a scorpion crawling on his body. Chen turned on the light and was astonished to see the bedroom full of scorpions, which have a poisonous sting, local news portal Southcn.com reported yesterday.

Chen woke up his family and together they captured several hundred scorpions in his apartment.

Chen later learned from his neighbor that the arachnids were discovered in all apartments on the street, the report said.

A man holding a bucket was seen walking out of the office of Shenzhen Luosha Engineering Development Co, a real estate firm that will build a new project at the complex. The man poured something from the bucket into apartment windows, a witness surnamed Li told the website. Li later found the street was crawling with scorpions, the report said.

Police and residents spent the whole night capturing nearly 50 kilograms of scorpions.

All the apartments are scheduled to be demolished but home owners haven't signed compensation deals yet, the report said.

Residents told the newspaper they suspect the developer freed the scorpions to drive them out as some buildings have already been torn down due to a tight schedule.

The developer denied it was behind the scorpion scare and also claimed to be a victim.

"The move was too despicable," a company manager was quoted as saying. "We wouldn't lift a stone only to have our own toes squashed," The manager added there was no need to "scare" residents as they had recently made a huge breakthrough in compensation negotiations.

Police are still investigating the incident, said the report.