A coffee picker plummeted to his death from a cliff while fleeing from a vicious swarm of bees.
Jhon Alexánder Soto Suaza was walking home with a colleague after finishing work in Colombia on 29 May when he decided to take a shortcut over a stream and ended up walking into the bees, Jam Press reports.
While under attack by the angry swarm, Suaza started running away and plunged down a precipice to the ground far below.
The victim’s colleague then notified the authorities in the rural town of Fredonia, some 35 miles south of Medellín.
The emergency services arrived on the scene to start a search operation at around 5pm.
A fire department spokesperson said: “While carrying out the search, the victim wasn’t found at the scene.
“In the first operation, six search units were dispatched, covering the terrain where the incident happened.
“The search was limited by the ravine and large cliffs in the area, which led us to carry out another search plan.”
Firefighters found Suaza’s lifeless body at around 8pm.
The spokesperson added: “During the evening, we carried out the plan to go further up the ravine with a group of locals we knew.
“We found the body about 229 metre (751ft) up the ravine.”
Search leader Esteban Blandón said: “His death was caused by the fall.
“The drop was about seven metres (23 ft) and he suffered multiple fractures, including his skull.
“After he fell, he got stuck in the same place due to the shape of the rocky ravine, there was no way for the water to drag him away.”
The authorities managed to extract Suaza’s body from the difficult-to-access area and transported it to the morgue of Santa Lucía Hospital in Fredonia.
An investigation into the victim’s exact cause of death is ongoing.
