A 70-year-old Norwegian man met his death in Mijas when he was attacked by a swarm of bees.

The incident, which occurred on Thursday the 1st of June, was discovered around eight in the evening by a woman who was walking her dog along a track at the upper end of Riviera del Sol.

She found the man with his T-shirt over his head on the side of the track and immediately alerted the Guardia Civil. A police car was despatched but the first to arrive was a Seprona patrol who confirmed that the man was dead and had suffered a massive amount of bee stings all over his body – the least affected part of his body was on his head, as he had tried to protect it with his T-shirt.

The police found 150 bee hives some 400 metres away. The access track that led to the hives was clearly marked with warnings about their existence with the words, Atención, Abejas! on a yellow background.

The police surmise that the man received the first stings in the immediate area of the hives and tried to distance himself from them, but to no avail.

The coroner gave permission for the body to be removed around ten that night. There were no further attacks because the bees were all back in the hive with nightfall.

The post mortem concluded that the victim had died from anaphylactic shock. The amount of poison (apitoxin) was fatal, regardless of whether the person was allergic to bee stings or not.

This sort of attack is not normal, but could have been triggered by a recent removal of honey from the hives, suggested an apiculture expert, with the victim over-reacting to the loud hum; i.e., showing fear and waving his arms to swat the first ones away.

Finally, the victim was an active member of the Norwegian community in Mijas who collaborated with the Norwegian church in Calahonda. He hadn’t been seen by his neighbours since Wednesday, the 31st.

(News: Mijas, Costa del Sol, Malaga, Andalucia)