ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Cleaners on the London Underground unwittingly removed a piece of work by world-renowned graffiti artist Banksy last week.

The piece, called If You Don't Mask, You Don't Get, was painted inside a Circle Line service carriage. A video posted on his Instagram account shows a man, believed to be the elusive artist, disguised as a member of the cleaning staff and wearing a hazmat suit.

He boards the train and instructs some of the passengers to move away. He then proceeds to stencil rats on the inside of a train carriage. Some rats are wearing face masks or using them as parachutes. Another appears to be sneezing, and another is holding a bottle of hand sanitiser.

But by the time he had posted the video online, it had already been wiped away - testament to the speedy work of the Transport for London (TfL) cleaning crew.

A spokesman for TfL said: "It was treated like any other graffiti on the network. The job of the cleaners is to make sure the network is clean, especially given the current climate."

• Pic is from Banksy's Instagram account