Swarm of bees ‘stings six people to death including a mother and her eight-year-old daughter’ after coach crashes off road into African honeybee hives
- 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 stings
Six people including a mother and her eight-year-old daughter have died after being attacked by killer bees following a traffic accident, local media have reported.
The victims were said to be among around 60 passengers on board a coach that came off the road in Nicaragua and ended up crashing in an area where African honeybees were being kept in hives.
The angry insects are said to have reacted by stinging 45 passengers on the bus as they escaped from the vehicle.
Although the coach was damaged after plunging more than 160ft off the road into a coffee plantation where the bees were being kept in wooden hives, local reports say medics are attributing the victims’ deaths to the insect stings.
Initial reports put the number of dead at four following Monday morning’s accident in Nicaragua.
Around 60 passengers were on board a coach that came off the road in Nicaragua and ended up crashing in an area where African honeybees were being kept in hives, La Nueva Radio YA reported
Africanised honey bees, also known colloquially as the ‘killer bee’, is a hybrid of the western honey bee
But it later emerged two of the most seriously-injured victims had died in hospital, La Nueva Radio YA reported.
The crash happened in the municipality of San Sebastian de Yali, around 115 miles north of the Nicaraguan capital Managua.
The victims included a 47-year-old woman named locally as Eneyda Torrez Zelaya, 47, and her daughter Andrea Carolina Garcia Torrez, eight.
Another of those killed was an 84-year-old woman named as Reyna Isabel Olivas Montalvan.
A four-year-old boy is said to be in a serious condition in Victoria Mota Hospital in Jinotega, the nearest city to the crash scene.
Photos of those injured showed the victims with dozens of red welts all over their upper bodies.
Some were filmed arriving at hospital in the back of ambulances surrounded by anguished crowds of people.
An investigation into the cause of the accident is ongoing, although initial reports point to the 22-year-old driver losing control of his vehicle because of mechanical faults.
Some victims were filmed arriving at hospital in the back of ambulances surrounded by anguished crowds of people, La Nueva Radio YA reported
Victims of the reported African honeybee attack are pictured lying in the bed 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
Africanised honey bees, also known colloquially as the ‘killer bee’, is a hybrid of the western honey bee.
They are typically more defensive, reacting to disturbances faster and chasing people further than other varieties of honey bees.
They have killed some 1,000 humans, with victims receiving 10 times more stings than from European honey bees.
The insects, which spread through South and North America after being introduced to Brazil in the 1950s and escaping quarantine, have also been blamed for the deaths of horses and other animals they have attacked.
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