Fans have been offered what might be the clearest glimpse of anonymous street artist Banksy yet in a new video showing him tagging a London tube carriage with a coronavirus-inspired graffiti.
The video, captioned "If you don't mask - you don't get," shows a man believed to be Bansky donning a hazmat suit and hi-vis vest, disguised as one of the Transport For London cleaners hired to deep clean during the coronavirus pandemic.
Despite his face mask and goggles, Banksy's face is almost visible for a moment as he prepares his next stunt.
On boarding the train, Banksy reveals his true purpose, and gets to work stencilling a series of rats onto the walls, his cleaning apparatus spraying blue paint rather than disinfectant.
One of the rats is depicted sneezing, while another uses a face mask as a parachute and a third holds a bottle of hand sanitiser.
At one stage, Banksy gestures for a member of the public to back up as he works on his art.
The pièce de résistance comes at the final shot of the video, showing the words 'I get lockdown' on a tube station wall before the doors close, revealing the phrase 'but I get back up again', referencing the Chumbawamba song Tubthumping, which begins to play.
According to the BBC, Transport For London removed the artwork "some days ago" as it violated their "strict anti-graffiti policy".
A statement from TFL said it appreciated "the sentiment of encouraging people to wear face coverings".
"We'd like to offer Banksy the chance to do a new version of his message for our customers in a suitable location."
