Bee swarm kills six people, including a mother and her eight-year-old daughter, after bus crashes off road into beehives in Africa
- The angry African honeybees are said to have stung 45 passengers on a bus
- Six people are reportedly dead, with medics attributing the deaths to the stabbings
Six people, including a mother and her eight-year-old daughter, have died after being attacked by deadly bees following a road accident, local media reported.
The victims were reportedly one of about 60 passengers on board a tour bus in Nicaragua that went off the road and crashed into an area where African honey bees were kept in beehives.
The angry insects allegedly responded by stabbing 45 passengers on the bus as they escaped from the vehicle.
Although the carriage was damaged after it crashed more than 50 meters off the road into a coffee plantation where the bees were kept in wooden hives, local reports say medics attribute the victims’ deaths to the insect stings.
Initial reports put the number of deaths at four after Monday morning’s accident in Nicaragua.
About 60 passengers were on board a tour bus that ran off the road in Nicaragua and crashed in an area where African honey bees were kept in beehives. La Nueva Radio YA reported
Africanized honey bee, also known as the ‘killer bee’, is a hybrid of the Western honey bee
But it later emerged that two of the most seriously injured victims had died in hospital. La Nueva Radio YA reported.
The accident happened in the municipality of San Sebastian de Yali, about 185 kilometers north of the Nicaraguan capital Managua.
The victims included a 47-year-old woman, locally named as Eneyda Torrez Zelaya, 47, and her daughter Andrea Carolina Garcia Torrez, eight.
Another of the dead was an 84-year-old woman named Reyna Isabel Olivas Montalvan.
A four-year-old boy is said to be in critical condition at Victoria Mota Hospital in Jinotega, the town closest to the accident scene.
Photos of the injured showed the victims with dozens of red welts all over their upper bodies.
Some were filmed arriving at the hospital in the back of ambulances surrounded by anguished crowds.
The cause of the accident is under investigation, although initial reports indicate that the 22-year-old driver lost control of his vehicle due to mechanical failure.
Some of the victims were filmed arriving at the hospital in the back of ambulances surrounded by anguished crowds. La Nueva Radio YA reported
Victims of the reported African honeybee attack are pictured lying in the back of a truck after being rushed to a local hospital. La Nueva Radio YA reported
People surround a truck after victims of an African honey bee attack are rushed to hospital. La Nueva Radio YA reported
Africanized honey bees, also known colloquially as ‘killer bee’, are a hybrid of the Western honey bee.
They tend to be more defensive, more responsive to disturbances, and chase humans further than other types of honey bees.
They have killed some 1,000 people, with victims receiving 10 times more stings than European honeybees.
The insects, which spread through South and North America after being introduced to Brazil in the 1950s and escaping quarantine, are also blamed for the deaths of horses and other animals they attacked.