WASHINGTON: A man in the US is recovering in the hospital after he was attacked by as many as 50,000 bees when he accidentally tore into a massive five-foot-tall beehive.
The unidentified man ripped a hole in the side of the bee hive while working on a garden shed in Kingman, Arizona.
Within seconds, he was attacked by thousands of angry bees, and may have been stung up to 1,000 times, according to Leslie DeSantis, from the Mohave County Sheriff's Office.
The man is now in the Kingman Regional Medical Center in a stable condition.
A beekeeper, Johnnie Hoeft, was called in to help contain the bees. He carefully pried apart the five-foot-tall, three-foot-wide beehive which was inside an old cabinet that was located inside the backyard shed.
Even though Hoeft was wearing what he called a top-of-the line beekeeper suit, he told '12News' that he was stung 23 times.
He estimated that the nest was packed with 50,000 bees and will take days to fully remove.
Passing drivers are being advised to keep their windows closed, said police.