Panama City  - A swarm of suspected Africanized "killer bees" killed a 66-year-old retired police lieutenant and left his wife seriously injured, Panamanian authorities said Saturday.

The insect attack occurred in the town of Purio near Panama City.

The incident started when the man shook a tree on a fruit plantation, setting off a hive of bees. The couple suffered thousands of bee stings as the hive attacked.

The husband died at Joaquin Franco Sayas Hospital in Panama City, where the wife was being treated but was expected to survive, hospital officials said.

Attacks on humans in Panama are not unusual involving aggressive bees, which are usually hybrids of local species and so-called African bees, which were imported in the 1950s to South America and quickly spread across the continent and into Central and North America. (dpa)