Killer Bees Sting Woman 500 Times

A 77-year-old woman is hospitalized in critical condition after being stung more than 500 times by a swarm of killer bees.

The woman, whose name was not released, was attacked Tuesday while walking along a street a few blocks from her Las Vegas home, Fire Department spokesman Tim Szymanski said. He said the bees might have been drawn to something in a bag she was carrying.

Firefighters wearing special gear doused the woman with water to get about 200 bees off her. Two police officers were stung while trying to rescue her. Hospital personnel used tweezers and duct tape to pull the stingers from her body.

The state Agriculture Department confirmed the bees were Africanized bees, commonly known as killer bees because of the way they attack in swarms.

The attack was the second in the Las Vegas area since January. On Feb. 9, a 79-year-old man was stung about 30 times. He survived.

Africanized bees have killed an estimated 1,000 people as they migrated northward from Brazil beginning in 1957. The first swarm in the United States was reported in Texas in 1990.