ALTUS AFB - According to Dave Sundquist, he and several members of a privately contracted landscaping crew were attacked and stung by Africanized “killer bees” Wednesday.

According to Sundquist, he and other crew members were doing routine yard maintenance in the 400 block of Honeysuckle in base housing on Altus Air Force Base when they were attacked. Sundquist said that five people were stung.

Altus AFB entomology was called out and Sundquist said that they confirmed the hive to be Africanized “killer bees. “Since base housing has been privatized, GMH Housing is now responsible for the bee removal. GMH Housing confirmed the attack, but said that this is a situation that they have not had to deal with before and didn't know at this time what their procedures would be in similar cases in the future.

"Many members of the landscaping crew were stung upwards of 10 times," Sundquist said. "This is possibly enough times to kill a small child out playing in the heavy populated neighborhood," he warned.

 "I just thought the citizens of Altus should be aware of this," he said about reporting the incident. "Just because they are on base doesn't mean they can't relocate to someone else's neck of the woods."