IKEA has banned people from playing hide and seek in its stores after several Facebook-organised games amassed tens of thousands of participants. More than 19,000 people have signed up to participate in a game at an Amsterdam IKEA store and another 32,000 at a shop in Eindhoven, forcing management to ban the event citing safety concerns. The bizarrely popular events were inspired by the success of a game held in a Belgium store last year in which 500 adults participated and were discovered hiding in fridges, cupboards and underneath piles of soft toys. More than 32,000 people were planning to play a game of hide and seek at an IKEA store in Eindhoven next month, forcing management to ban the game. File image used . In banning the game, Ikea spokesperson Martina Smedberg told Bloomberg it was simply too difficult to control. She said: '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.' The carefully orchestrated games had begun spiralling out of control - its burgeoning popularity has already spread to the Czech Republic and Australia where more games are being organised. The cancellation of the games, which were to be held in April and May, has now left participants scrambling to find alternative shopping mall and retail locations. The idea of using an Ikea store for an adult game of hide and seek has been mooted for years, given the furniture stores' abundance of adult-sized hiding places. An organiser of last year's Belgium game, Elise De Rijck, told Bloomberg this was because the stores were like an 'extremely large living room'.
IKEA has banned adults from playing  hide and seek in its furniture stores . More than 32,000 people joined a Facebook event to play it in Eindhoven . The idea of using the stores as a playground started in Belgium last year . In the game, 500 people were found hiding in fridges and under soft toys .