A bush is growing out of control after two people died and a third suffered an epileptic fit within months of trying to tame it.

Petrified accountant Gnanasuravi Raveendran, 51, of Ashmore Grove, Welling, refuses to let his family cut the cursed hedge outside his front window.

The last time Mr Raveendran saw his 53-year-old sister, from Wimbledon, was in 1997 when she tried to tame the plant. He last saw his 61-year-old brother-in-law, when he visited from Canada this year and also pruned the privet.

Within three months of their visits both had died.

Mr Raveendrans brother tried to cut the evil evergreen back but suffered an epileptic fit for the first time in 20 years after returning home to Bedford.

He said: "I am an accountant, I am not superstitious. But there are too many coincidences. Even if there is only a one per cent chance it is the hedge that is causing this, I do not want to take the chance."

His wife Mona, 45, said she would cut it but Mr Raveendran will not let her.

The father-of-four from Sri Lanka bought the bush with the house 12 years ago. In the past, he has talked to plants to help them but he is too shy to face down this one.

He said: "I am not talking to the bush. This is serious stuff."

He thinks the spirit of the former owner may have drained into the nine-foot high plant.

He added: "She was a widow and seemed to have an air of sadness about her. Maybe she left her sadness behind in the hedge."

Mr Raveendrans friend Colin Sharp, a keen gardener believes it will only be another three years before the shrub, which has been allowed to grow unchecked for the last two years, smothers all the front windows.