Six Killed by Killer Bees After Bus Crashes into Hives

GODREKR · #1 ● 05-10-2023, 02:20 AM

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.

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 E.T.Z., 47, and her daughter A.C.G.T., eight.

Another of those killed was an 84-year-old woman named as R.I.O.M..

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.

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.