Giant planned hide-and-seek game alarms Sydney IKEA store

Retail giant IKEA has been alarmed by a giant hide-and-seek game planned by social media organizers at one of its Sydney stores.

More than 40,000 have registered for the event in May organized by university students as part of a world-wide craze at IKEA stores.

They chose the retailer because of the huge size of its stores.

News Corporation reported IKEA has banned people from taking part in the game, citing security concerns.

"The recent interest in playing Hide-and-Seek at IKEA stores raises security issues for both customers and co-workers," a spokeswoman said.

"At all times IKEA must be able to guarantee a safe environment therefore we encourage people to play hide-and-seek at other places," he added.

"Due to the level of interest, even if IKEA wish to host games, we are not able to guarantee the safety for our customers. Thus, we are unable to host these games."

An organizer said it was still hoping the event could take place in some form.

Sydney police are monitoring the situation, which originated on the Facebook.

"It has been assessed, and there was a situation report put out from the commander here yesterday," officer Inspector Aston said.

"We're not planning anything at this stage (but) we'll monitor the situation."