Bee Swarm Attacks UK Police Station, Transforms it Into a Hive: Officers Forced to Evacuate

Bees carried out a so-called "sting operation" at a UK police station last week, when a bee swarm consisting of thousands of the winged insects stormed a police headquarters at Wootton Hall in the town of Northampton in England.

The bee attack forced the police officers to evacuate and called a local beekeeper to rescue them.

In addition, the police force was conducting an online question and answer event when the bee swarm intrusion transpired.

As a result, the police were forced to cancel the session before heading out of the headquarters.

The footage of the incident was captured and went viral on social media, as well as some local media outlets across the UK, several days after it occurred on Thursday, June 16.

The bizarre case adds to the interesting behavior of the pollinators when searching for a new colony.

Bee Invasion

(Photo : ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images)

In a YouTube video posted by the channel Storyful Viral on Friday, June 17, the description says the bee invasion occurred at one of the station's rooms, where the Facebook online session about response policing was taking place.

In the video, it can be seen that a large number of bees were flying all over a room and crawling on windows.

Also Read: Thousands of Bees Took Over a Car and Won't Leave

Sting Operation

Metro.co.uk reported that some members of the public, during the online event, suggested that the Northamptonshire Police send a "swat team," while other remarks suggested the officers should issue a dispersal order for the bees.

The police officers also humored their audiences that the bees had launched a "sting operation" following the incident, according to The Sun.

UK Bee Swarm

The British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) consider bee swarming as a natural process, which happens when bees for a certain colony decide to leave and find a new home.

The associated underlines most swarms occur on warm, sunny days between 11:00 a.m. and 04:00 p.m. from May to July each year.

In the case of honeybee swarms, the BBKA said it could consist of several thousand members accompanied by a "large noisy cloud" kind of sound, and they can settle into a new cluster within a span of 15 minutes.

In the past, bee swarms have occupied not only trees and other natural structures but also home and commercial establishments.

In May, a beekeeper unit of the New York City Police Department removed 8,000 honeybees from the World Trade Center.

While the Northampton bee swarm were not considered life-threatening, the UK has recently been facing a threat from killer hornets.

On June 14, circulating reports suggested that a swarm of giant Asian hornets, or murder hornets, were seen heading towards Southeast UK.

The said hornets were responsible for killing five people in France after becoming victims of their lethal stings.

An anaphylactic shock caused the said fatalities.

The hornet swarm was reported nesting between Southeast UK and Northwest France, particularly in the island countries of Jersey and Guernsey in the Channel Islands.