Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe FORT PIERCE, Fla., Feb. 23 (UPI) -- A Florida middle school was locked down for three hours after a man operating a bulldozer nearby hit what appeared to be a hive of Africanized honey bees. The bees chased the man for several hundred yards, the Palm Beach Post reported. He was stung several times but escaped serious injury. Advertisement Forest Grove Middle School in Fort Pierce was locked down within 10 minutes of the incident, officials said. School buses had to be rerouted away from the hive, delaying students' homecoming by a few minutes. Africanized bees, popularly known as killer bees, are descended from African bees brought to Brazil in the 1950s in an attempt to breed a bee more suitable for the tropics. They tend to be more aggressive than European bees and live in larger hives. Firefighters sprayed the hive with foam. Dead bees were to be collected to determine if they were Africanized bees.
