According to Taiwan media reports, 9 Taipei and New Taipei citizens met on the morning of 21 September to hike on the Bafenliao Trail in Ruifang District, New Taipei City, through a mountaineering group, and suddenly encountered an attack by hundreds of tiger bees, and 20 people were slightly or seriously injured by the stings, 20 of whom lost their breathing heartbeat and were sent to medical treatment. The New Taipei City Fire Department was reported to the rescue, and 11 firefighters were also stung.
Image source: Taiwan's Lianhe Pao
According to the report, the mountaineering group encountered a bee swarm attack at 20 a.m. on the 11th on the Bafenliao Trail, and Mr. Wang, a member of the group, said that starting from the trailhead at 10 a.m., hundreds of bees suddenly appeared flying towards them after walking for more than 1 hour, and many people were stung by bees and shouted that it hurt, and everyone pulled their legs and ran away, but there was nowhere to hide.
The fire station received a report of 20 vehicles and 51 people, and arrived at about 12:20 p.m., many people lying on the ground wailing, ambulance personnel quickly took the injured people down the mountain, and sent the lightly injured people to the hospital for treatment. During the rescue process, 4 firefighters were also stung, but fortunately there was no major problem after being sent to the hospital for treatment.
In the mountaineering group, a 69-year-old man surnamed Jiao and a 66-year-old man surnamed Hu were seriously injured, and were bitten by bees until their whole bodies turned black, and they had to be carried down the mountain on a stretcher. During the transportation down the mountain, the two wounded suddenly lost their breathing heartbeat, and they were still unable to recover after emergency medical treatment.
Yang Shufang, director of the New Taipei City Animal Protection Department, said that there were at least more than 100 bees at the scene, because the mountain forest at the site was dense and there were a variety of tree species, which may be the favorite tree species of the bee colony, plus there was a water source to attract it, and the bee colony was foraging on the trees at that time, and it would scatter and attack tourists when they were disturbed, causing casualties.
The Animal Protection Department said that tiger bees like to suck the sap of rich smell and spoiled fruit sap, and will come out in groups to forage during the day, do not wear perfume and cosmetics on mountaineering, reduce the smell to attract tiger bees, climbing should try to stay on the trail activities, do not leave the trail range into the mountain forest or trail, easy to disturb the tiger bee.