Islamabad - Eight persons were stung and one lost his life when a swarm of bees attacked them on Thursday in the premises of Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU).

The incident occurred at mid of the day when eight gardeners of AIOU were resting under a tree during lunch break.  Names of the gardeners included Ghulam Fareed, Amir Nawaz, Tanveer Hussain, Imran Khan, Waqas Mukhtar, Afraz Hussain, Mohammad Gulzar and Manzoor.

Unfortunate, the 42-year-old gardener Mohammad Gulzar lost his life after bee attack.

“We were sitting and taking tea when suddenly aggressive bees reached from outside and attacked on all of us, possibly someone agitated them from outside,” said Amir Nawaz, one of the bee attack victim.

All the victims were shifted to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) on emergency basis by the university administration. Administrator PIMS, Dr Altaf Hussain said that eight patients of bee attack were received in hospital out of which one (Mohammad Gulzar) was brought dead.  He also said that seven other bee attack survivors were stable and discharged from the hospital after providing first aid. Spokesperson AIOU Mohammad Javed informed The Nation that gardeners were working in the garden near nursery of the university.

“However, incident occurred under a tree outside the university premises,” he said.  According to him, university administration called the rescue services and shifted the victims to hospital. Informing about the deceased gardener Mohammad Gulzar, he said that it was a tragedy; university administration reached to hospital immediately and compensated the victims.

“Rs 40,000 were given to the family of deceased gardener to shift his dead body to the native city Hafizabad,” he said.

Some amount was also distributed amongst other patients, he said.

All the patients were stung in head and other body parts. No one was aware about the beehive in the area.