Four people including an eight-year-old girl were stung to death after the bus they were travelling on plunged into a 50-metre ravine (165 feet) and hit several beehives.
The public transport vehicle was carrying 45 passengers to the town of La Rica, Nicaragua.
The victims all survived the accident but died after the agitated insects stung them dozens of times. Gruesome images show the stings on the body of one of the passengers.
The driver – identified as Santos Ismael Herrera, 22, by local newspapers – reportedly lost control of the bus due to a mechanical failure.
It then slid down the steep ravine before smashing into the hives situated at a coffee plantation.
Nicaraguan media report that 47-year-old Eneyda Torrez, her eight-year-old daughter Andrea Torrez as well as Dilcia Flores Amparo, 32, and Santos Arnulfo Calderon Castellon, 34, lost their lives in the crash.
Witnesses of the crash tried to help the passengers but were unable to reach them due to the thousands of swarming bees.
Eventually, paramedics, doctors and firefighters arrived to rescue the injured who were then taken to hospital.
Published footage shows several injured individuals being loaded onto the back of a pickup truck.
It is unclear how many people were injured. Nicaraguan police are investigating the incident.
The agitated bees were Africanised honeybees, according to reports by local news websites.
Occasionally nicknamed ‘killer bees’, this type of bee is a hybrid of different other species.
Emily Osterloff creates content for the website of the Natural History Museum in London, United Kingdom.
In an article on Africanised bees, she explains: “Their demeanour has earned them the terrifying nickname of ‘killer bees’, but relatively few deaths are caused in proportion to the number of colonies.”
