A false leg, a set of mountain bikes and a giant crab are all items left behind on UK coaches.

The 10-legged crab was taken on board by a Chinese couple who could not speak English, National Express said.

They had bought a child’s ticket for the crab which was found on a Coventry to Inverness service.

As there were no seaside stops on the route, a special coach was chartered to drop the crab off at the end of Blackpool Pier on the advice of marine biologists.

The false leg had been worn, and subsequently removed, by a passenger who disembarked without it, while the mountain bikes were left in their boxes.

Other forgetten items included:

• A signed photograph of pop star Justin Bieber, which was left on a coach returning from a gig at Wembley Stadium;

• A pair of full-sized feathered Native American headdresses;

• A bag containing two lime green “mankinis” and an oversized 40th birthday badge; and

• A small furry creature native to Chile called a degu. This mouse-like creature was subsequently adopted by the manager of Liverpool coach station.

National Express lost property manager Claire Horvath said: “It’s absolutely unbelievable the things people leave on the coaches and on more than one occasion I’ve been left rubbing my eyes in the lost property room.

“The headdresses were one of the more unusual items left behind.

“I mean, we’ve all mislaid glasses or a mobile phone, but how do you forget something that size?”