Angry bees attacked and stung a volunteer police officer of the Los Angeles Police Department several dozens of times in the Encino area of Los Angeles, California, earlier this week. The incident was caught on live television, showing the LAPD officer repeatedly falling to the ground while desperately attempting to flee from the bee swarm in the thousands, according to reports.
The officer survived the attack but sustained multiple wounds, especially in his face with a damaged eye socket. Another person was hurt during the incident, which started when the cop responded to a call in the Encino neighborhood being terrorized by a swarm of bees. However, it is unclear what triggered the bees to focus their gaze on the cop.
Bee Attack Caught Live
This photo taken on December 28, 2018 shows bees on a framed honeycomb at beekeeper Yip Ki-hok's apiary in Hong Kong. - High up in the hills above Hong Kong, Yip Ki-hok uses nothing but his bare hands to remove a honey-filled nest of swarming bees -- a remarkable skill he learned after the hardship of China's famine years.
In the viral video posted on YouTube by Inside Edition, it can be seen the LAPD volunteer police officer was struggling along the Encino streets where some news crews are present, along with the police and firefighters, but are inside their vehicles.
The attack ended when bee expert, Izak Kharrazi, who was watching the live coverage of the bee attack, went to the scene and had no choice but to exterminate the bees using a spray, he told Inside Edition's Jim Moret. Meanwhile, one Encino resident was stung on the lip and could not go outside during the incident.
The volunteer cop was bloodied and swollen once in the hospital after being stung up to 100 times, according to the New York Post. In the footage, the uniformed civilian volunteer was identified by his family by the name of 'Gary' only.
The incident, which occurred in the late afternoon of Monday, May 15, was also captured by helicopters hovering over the area.
There were no deaths reported from the elusive bee attack, which has occurred several times in the past, with some cases leading to death.
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Why Do Bees Attack Humans?
In general, bees do not travel long distances just to sting, injure, or kill humans. However, experts in the past have asserted such incidents do occur when the winged insects are disturbed and forced to defend their hive.
For instance, honeybees will only attack to defend their colony only when they are disturbed by external sources like vibrations, hair, dark colors, and carbon dioxide, according to experts, as cited by the University of California, San Diego.
In its analysis, the university said bees attack humans since we are mammals, who are the most common predators of insects. With the causes of disruptions mentioned earlier, mammals are typically hairy, exhale carbon dioxide, and dark colored, UCSD said.
In July 2021, a bee attack near Tucson, Arizona, led to the death of a man and injury of two others after being stung hundreds of times by a bee swarm, The Guardian reported.
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