I'm A Celeb campmates exposed to grim hidden health risk following unexpected evacuation

The campmates on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! had to be evacuated from the camp for a while recently thanks to some extreme weather hitting the area.

Located in Dungay Creek in Australia's state of New South Wales, the I'm A Celeb camp is in a part of the world that can get battered by some hefty changes in the weather.

The show has some protections in place to keep the worst of it away from the celebrities as there's a canopy over parts of the camp which keeps the worst of the rain away from the fire and the sleeping area.

Having a canopy also helps protect all of the filming equipment the ITV show has rigged up in the jungle to catch all the moments of downtime between the dramatic Bushtucker Trials.

An added bonus to all of this is giving I'm A Celeb somewhere to lower food down from, so if the campmates do well and earn meals they can be dropped from above.

The campmates had to get under some more solid shelter while filming was paused (ITV)

However, the protections can't keep the absolute worst of the weather out and recently there was an unexpected evacuation at the camp.

According to The Sun, filming was delayed for hours as the I'm A Celeb campmates were bombarded by rain and hailstones, requiring everyone to take shelter in the Bush Telegraph for an hour to have an actual solid roof over their heads.

Fortunately it was only a temporary delay to filming and the foul weather eventually passed by.

A show source told LADbible: "Our health and safety weather contingencies kicked in and we evacuated the celebrities immediately to the Bush Telegraph until the storm passed and it was safe to return to camp."

So it sounds like this spanner in the works was eventually dealt with and removed, but The Sun warns there's another hazard risk from all of this wet weather.

The camp is located in Dungay Creek and storms do happen, which can apparently attract leeches (ITV)

They suggested that the wet weather might attract 'blood sucking leeches' which the camp would definitely not want to have latched onto them.

The Australian Museum also notes that wet weather increases the risk of leeches latching on to humans and their pets.

Evacuation of the I'm A Celeb camp is just one of those things show bosses have to contend with when it comes to outdoor living in Dungay Creek, which is actually a rainforest and not a jungle despite what Ant and Dec keep telling you.

As you might expect, sometimes there's an awful lot of rain.

The risk of leeches

Some of the campmates did discover a few leeches nearby as Kelly Brook, Alex Scott and Shona McGarty went for a dip in the creek which was cut short when they spotted the leeches in a corner.

Not wanting an encounter with the blood suckers, the campmates got out of the creek sharpish.

Leeches can latch onto a person's skin and start drinking their blood, removing them before they've had their fill can lead to some serious health problems.

They release an anticoagulant while feeding, which means any wound they make is likely to bleed rather than clotting over like it should, and there is a risk it will become infected and ulcerated.

Attempting to use salt or heat to burn a leech off can result in it vomiting into the wound it made to feed from, which can also lead to infection.

Health advice recommends that you let the leech drink its fill of your blood and detach itself, then keep pressure on the wound and apply antiseptic.