Lucknow: A swarm of bees attacked a team of senior govt officials during an official visit to Devgarh village, around 35 km from Lalitpur district headquarters, for an inspection on Sunday.

At least seven people were injured, including chief development officer Kamalakant Pandey and additional district magistrate Rajesh Srivastava, who reportedly sustained over 500 bee stings. The two were rushed to Jhansi for treatment.Others injured included nayab tehsildar Ghanendra Tiwari, sub inspector Dinesh Kumar, lekhpal Suryansh, lekhpal Shashank, and a police constable who was part of the escort team.

District magistrate, Lalitpur, Akshay Tripathi, told TOI that the incident occurred on Sunday morning while the team was surveying progress under the Rs 50 crore 'Har Ghar Nal Yojana', part of the Jal Jeevan Mission."Special secretary of the silk development and youth welfare department, Sunil Kumar Verma, who was deputed as the nodal officer to Lalitpur by the Uttar Pradesh govt, was leading the inspection when the swarm suddenly attacked the group," said Tripathi.

According to official sources, the group was near the Buddhist caves near the Dashavatar temple ruins, when the attack took place.Amid the mayhem, CDO Kamalakant reportedly dropped to the ground and buried his face in the soil to protect himself, lying there for nearly 30 minutes. ADM Srivastava's gunner tried to shield him but was also stung. Verma managed to escape without much injury."We were there at the wrong time.

Probably a large swarm was migrating from one place to another when we reached there and got caught," Verma told TOI, adding "after shifting our injured colleagues to hospital, the rest of us completed inspection work at other locations. Some villagers rushed in wrapped in blankets to rescue the victims and informed the police and forest department. Ambulances were called, and several injured were admitted to the district hospital.The condition of ADM Rajesh Srivastava remains critical, prompting his referral to a higher medical facility in Jhansi."All those injured are stable and out of danger," said a doctor, who was examining those injured.