Ikea bans hide-and-seek in stores across Netherlands

After thousands participated in a hide-and-seek event at a store in Belgium last summer, Ikea has decided to cancel several planned events at Dutch stores due to safety concerns.

Ikea Group spokeswoman Martina Smedberg said in a Bloomberg report: "It's hard to control. We need to make sure people are safe in our stores and that's hard to do if we don't even know where they are."

Several thousand people were reportedly due to participate in hide-and-seek events across Ikea stores in Eindhoven, Amsterdam and Utrecht.

Over 32,000 people had signed up over Facebook to participate in the event at Ikea's Eindhoven store with 19,000 reportedly registered as interested in a game in Amsterdam and 12,000 in Utrecht.

Following the announcement, organisers are now looking for alternative locations for the games.

The last hide-and-seek event took place at a store in Wilrijk, Belgium, in July, according to Sky News.

Ikea granted permission for the event after 29-year-old Elise De Rijck put it down on her list of 30 things to do before her 30th birthday.

"Sometimes it's fun just to do some childish things. Ikea is like an extremely large living room," said Rijck.

Rijck who organised the event said people were reportedly hiding in fridges, below stuffed toys and the blue Ikea shopping bags.

Some people were also found hiding in the storage space under beds.

"We played hide-and-seek the whole day," said Rijck. "It was really exhausting, but so much fun."

An estimated 500 people participated in the event, said Ikea spokeswoman Annelies Nauwelaerts.