‘Killer bees’ sting 6 people to death in Nicaragua after bus plunges into ravine

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**WARNING: This story contains graphic photos.**

Six people, including a mother and her 8-year-old daughter, were stung to death by a swarm of “killer bees” during a bus ride in Nicaragua earlier this week.

A bus carrying 60 passengers was making the hour-long journey from Jinotega to San Sebastián de Yalí in Nicaragua on Monday when the vehicle skidded off the road and plunged 165 feet down a ravine, according to local reports via the New York Post.

While all passengers survived the initial terrifying drop, the bus landed in a coffee plantation field that was home to a number of disturbed – and angry – killer Africanized bees.

The passengers were stung repeatedly by the angry insects, and victims’ bodies were covered head to toe with hundreds of angry red bite marks.

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The bus skidded off the road and fell into a ravine, but struck several hives, rousing a swarm of killer bees. (Jam Press)

Six people ultimately died from the killer bees’ stings and 14 others were hospitalized after the incident. 

The New York Times reported the victims as: Reyna Isabel Olivas Montalván, 84; Santos Arnulfo Calderón Castellón, 38; Dilcia Flores Amparo, 32; and Kenia Jazmín Soza Bonilla, 19.

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Also, among the dead were Eneyda Tórrez Zelaya, 47, and her 8-year-old daughter Andrea Carolina.

Six people, including an 8-year-old girl, have been killed by a swarm of bees after a bus they were riding plunged into a ravine and hit several killer beehives. (Jam Press)

A picture shows a victim’s arm covered in bee stings from African killer bees. (Jam Press)

According to the USDA, the Africanized honey bee, also known as the killer bee, is a cross-breed between the European honey bee and the African honey bee.

The so-called killer bee is the result of experiments in Brazil decades ago. The insects then migrated to the U.S.

Although weather is a factor, a normal bee season runs from mid-March through October.

The bus tumbled down a ravine and crashed into multiple bee hives. Six people died from their injuries and another 14 were hospitalized. (Jam Press)

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The bees also constantly on guard for possible threats to their hive, and even find the color of a shirt or scent of cologne as threatening.

Health officials advise people who disrupt a beehive to cover their heads, run away and take shelter, and not to flail their arms.

Sarah Rumpf-Whitten is a writer on the breaking news team for Fox News Digital. You can reach her on Twitter at @s_rumpfwhitten.