A California family described the horrifying moments when a swarm of bees suddenly attacked them in their backyard, injuring five people and killing their dog, according to reports.
The swarm descended on them Wednesday as family members and their friends were swimming, and mom Tiffany Ahmu heard her daughter's screams.
"I can hear my daughter, 'Mommy, you need to come out here!'" Ahmu told Fox 5 San Diego.
"The minute I walk out, it's just black - black smoke, that's what it looked like," she said, describing the mass of bees that initially went after the family dog, Kona.
Ahmu said she and her children were stung multiple times.
"One was screaming here, one was screaming there," she said. "My 17-year-old with the baby was in the pool, kept dunking under water. My 12-year-old was right here, shocked."
The harrowing attack took about 90 seconds, with the buzzing horde streaming into the backyard down a corridor from the front of the house.
"It looked like you were in a movie," daughter Thalia Hernandez told NBC San Diego.
"I'm running with the baby, and the only thing on my mind is don't slip," daughter Tatiana Ahmu told the station.
Ahmu's two daughters and two teenage girls who were family friends were swimming. An 8-month-old cousin was also in the yard.
Kona, the family's 12-year-old boxer, was the first blitzed by the bees.
"It looked like she fell in a cactus. You could just see all the little stingers," Ahmu told NBC San Diego.
Ahmu said she came to Kona's aid even as the bees turned on her.
"I'm dunking her myself, and the bees are swarming around me," she said. "They're stinging the backs of my ears. They were in my hair. I swallowed a bee. I can still feel the stinger in my throat."
Ahmu said paramedics removed at least 50 stingers from her head and chest.
She said she and her husband were able to get everyone inside the house.
