A bus accident resulted in an even more terrifying incident when Africanized bees attacked the surviving passengers, causing the deaths of six people.
On May 8, a bus carrying approximately 45 passengers in northwest Nicaragua suffered mechanical failure, plunging several feet into a ravine and coming to rest in a coffee plantation. While the passengers survived the initial crash, their struggle was far from over as the bus had disturbed multiple beehives, inciting an aggressive swarm of “killer” bees to attack.
The victims ranged in age from an eight-year-old girl to adults between 19 and 84 years old. Additionally, 14 passengers sustained severe injuries due to the bee attack.
Local firefighters employed foam to subdue the swarm and rescue the remaining passengers from the bus.
Africanized honey bees, or “killer bees,” are a dangerous hybrid formed from the crossbreeding of African honey bees and European honey bees. Initially brought to Brazil in 1956 to increase honey production, African honey bees escaped in 1957 and interbred with European honey bees.
These hybrid bees have caused over 1,000 documented deaths in Brazil since the 1950s and have spread to other countries, including Nicaragua and the United States.
