A nine-year-old has astonished medics after surviving an attack by hundreds of bees as she scrambled from the wreckage of a car crash that killed both her granddad and her great-grandfather.
Alice Soares Albino had just managed to crawl out of the crushed car after it fell off a cliff beside the ES-130 Highway in the State of Espirito Santo, southeastern Brazil.
But as she tried to get help, she was immediately attacked by a swarm of bees from a hive that had apparently been disturbed by the crash. Alice suffered more than 500 stings before rescuers managed to drive off the swarm.
She was rushed to a hospital in the city of Colatina for emergency treatment and is said to be conscious and stable, according to reports by Brazilian news websites.
A spokesperson for the police said her grandfather Jose Pereira Novais, 77, had lost control of the car. The vehicle then plummeted off a cliff killing both him and the girl’s 96-year-old great-grandfather Paulo Soares Ribeiro.
Alice’s dad Celso Ruella Albino is quoted as saying: “Despite the severity of the car accident, she hardly has any scratches. I think what made it worse were the bee stings which she suffered when she bravely got out of the car to ask for help.”
Celso added: “Because of the situation there, because of the place where the accident happened, if there had not been a divine action, my daughter would not be here today.”
Bees usually do not assault other animals or humans unless they feel threatened or consider their hives or nests endangered, according to entomologists.
When bees sting humans, the insects push a barbed stinger, which contains proteins that affect the immune system, into the skin. This can be life-threatening to anyone allergic to these substances.
Experts advise anyone under attack by a swarm to seek shelter in a building as fast as they can.
