A MAN in Prey Veng province died hours after hornets stung him up to 20 times because neither he nor his family realised the stings could be lethal, district and police officials said Wednesday.

Yi Pov, 40, was found dead in his home in North Baray village Monday morning, said Baray police Chief Chan Narith.

Yi Pov was attacked Sunday after he tried to remove a hornets’ nest he had found in a bamboo thicket near his home.

“He wanted to remove it because the hornets posed a potential danger to villagers who walk past it,” Chan Narith said. “He also wanted to make food out of it.”

The victim’s family knew he had been stung but didn’t seek medical attention because they did not realise his injuries were so serious. Family members believed he had only been stung once or twice, said Chan Narith. In reality, hornets had stung him between 10 and 20 times.

Yi Pov fell asleep in pain and was dead by morning.

“If people knew how many times he was stung and sent him to the hospital on time, he would not have died,” Chan Narith said.

Yi Pov’s death was the first of its kind in Baray district, said district police Chief Hul Seng.

“We can say it is the carelessness of the victim’s family to assume that being stung by hornets poses no harm,” Hul Seng said. “But they were wrong.”

In late September, a 9-year-old boy died in Kampot province after he was stung more than 30 times by hornets. The boy and his mother were walking on a trail when a gust of wind knocked down a hornets’ nest from a nearby tree and the swarm of hornets attacked them.