Passengers stung to death by killer bees after coach crash

SIX people including a mother and her daughter, eight, have died after being attacked by killer bees following a traffic accident in Nicaragua.

The victims were among about 60 passengers on a coach that came off the road on Monday and ended up crashing in an area where African honeybees were being kept in hives.

The 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 said doctors were attributing the victims’ deaths to the insect stings. Initial reports put the number of dead at four.

It later emerged that two of the most seriously injured victims had died in hospital. The crash happened in the municipality of San Sebastian de Yali, about 115 miles north of the Nicaraguan capital Managua.

The victims included a woman, 47, named locally as Eneyda Torrez Zelaya, and her daughter Andrea Carolina Garcia Torrez, eight. Another of those killed was a woman, 84, named as Reyna Isabel Olivas Montalvan. A fouryear-old boy is said to be in a serious condition. Photos of those injured show the victims with dozens of red welts covering their upper bodies.

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 bees are known colloquially as the “killer bee” and they are typically more defensive, reacting to disturbances faster and chasing people further than other varieties.