The three in the French town remained “critical but stable” after the attacks of rare bees over the weekend, which injured 24 passersby, Mayor Aurilac said Monday.
Twenty-four people were injured and three were rushed to the hospital in danger when hundreds of bees suddenly attacked people in the central south town on Sunday morning.
According to local media, one of them was a 78-year-old woman who was stabbed 25 times and had to be resuscitated after a cardiopulmonary arrest.
Police and firefighters fenced the area and beekeepers were called to smoke bees – a safe way to calm insects.
A local man called Andre said he witnessed “very panicked people” trying to hit honeybees. “They could say they were being attacked by something, but they couldn’t understand what,” he told French media.
Pierre Matonier Mayor Aurilac reportedly said that Asian wasps threatening beehives could have been the catalyst for the attack.
However, Christian airlines, president of the local beekeepers’ union, were skeptical.
He told French information that honeybees generally avoid leaving the colony altogether in the presence of Asian hornets.
Instead, he said the unusual incident was due to the bee colony becoming too big for the bee hive and “overactivated” when beekeepers handled it.
“That might be [the bees] There was not enough space and their colonies had no intention of swarming. This could lead to a strong attack,” Career said.