Six villagers were injured when they were attacked by two swarms of aggressive bees in Thailand.

The shoppers were buying groceries at the Wat Phasukram market when they were divebombed by the territorial insects in Ubon Ratchathani province on March 20.

The panicked residents - some of them elderly and visually impaired - fled as hundreds of crazed bees swarmed the temple grounds. Other locals helped them hobble to safety and removed the bee stingers painfully embedded in their skin.

Six people were rushed to nearby hospitals for allergic reactions and have since been discharged.

An onlooker named Rungchat Wisetkaew, 56, said the bee attack came after a vendor had brought a box containing both honey and wild bees to the temple.

The bees were believed to have enraged another swarm already residing at the temple, triggering a violent skirmish with the villagers caught in the crossfire.

One of the injured shoppers, Samphan Lakthong, 66, said: 'I had not been to the market in two months. When I arrived, I didn't know what was happening, so I continued walking through the area.

'Suddenly, the bees descended on me. They flew into my shirt and stung me, so I removed it and tried to run away. I suffered more than 50 bee stings all over my body.'

Shocked vendors said it was the first time such a violent bee attack had happened at the market, which had been operating for more than a decade.