●Nathan Shiga: October 6

An awful tragedy happened in Ohsu, Ehime, as an 87-year-old woman on her wheelchair was attacked, stung to death by swarms of hornets on her way back home.

It happened at about 16:00 on September 11. The local fire station had an emergency call to the effect that a wheelchaired woman was being attacked by hornets. The rescue team reached the site 15 minutes later to find Ms. Chieko Kikuchi, 87, in a mist of swarms of hornets – just too many to go near the woman being stung.

The team had to wait for the hornets to thin out somewhat to save Ms. Kikuchi. She was rushed to the hospital. The hornets had attacked her for good 50 minutes at more than 150 points all over her body. Ms. Kikuchi died a day later.

Ms.Kikuchi was on her way back home from a welfare care-house in the city. She got off the commuting bus and boarded an electric wheelchair accompanied by a care-house staff. The accident happened as they were passing by a vacant house along the way. The staff was heavily stung and too preoccupied with her own defense to protect Ms. Kikuchi.

The fire station commented on the delay in rescue action:

“When we received the report we figured they had already moved to a safer place and so the team was not fully equipped to effect rescue.”

Some 20 people are stung to death by hornets every year- 19 last year, according to the Ministry of Welfare.

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