50 estate workers injured in wild bee attack, India

COIMBATORE: Fifty workers of the Vellamalai Top Division Tea Estate in Valparai were hospitalised on Thursday after they were stung by a swarm of wild bees. Twenty of them are said to be in a serious condition and are under constant observation. Three nurses who rushed there in an ambulance also came under attack from the bees and have been hospitalized.

According to witnesses, the bees started attacking the workers around 11.45am. Thirty of the 80-member team engaged in plucking tea leaf managed to escape. Those trapped between thick tea bushes in a portion of the vast estate had nowhere to run. Assistance, in the form of health workers and estate authorities, reached them along with an ambulance around 12.15pm. The nurses who arrived in the ambulance were also attacked.

People ran helter-skelter as the wild bees swooped down on them, witnesses said. Later, all the injured were admitted to the estate hospital and panic spread in the plantation town as news of the attack reached the local residents. Read More