Swarm of bees sting at least 30 people outside Illinois restaurant. ‘It was CHAOS’

A large swarm of “very aggressive” bees attacked the brunch crowd at an Illinois restaurant Sunday morning, authorities said, stinging at least 30 customers and staff.

The bees “completely took over our lot,” the Wooden Mouth restaurant said in a Facebook post.

“A minimum of 30 customers/staff members stung 1, 5, 10, 20, 37 times and no one understood HOW!!!!! We aren’t kidding when we say it was CHAOS!”

The New Baden restaurant in southern Illinois temporarily closed and management warned customers to stay away. Meanwhile, patrons trapped inside could only wait out the stinging swarm, order more rounds of mimosas and hope for the best.

Fire, EMS and police responded to the scene, and the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office asked residents to keep clear of the area until the bees could be contained.

So where did the bees come from?

The swarm was tracked back to an apiary at a nearby florist shop, which keeps bees to produce honey, the sheriff’s office told McClatchy News.

While the neighboring store may have been the source of the bees, the florist’s hives are not to blame, Wooden Mouth commented on a Facebook post, but instead a traveling bee colony that tried to move in while the florist was harvesting honey.

Many people were stung, but no one was killed or seriously injured, the sheriff’s office said.

Authorities had bee experts at the ready, but after a few hours the swarm buzzed off on its own, according to the sheriff’s office.