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An American couple exercising their Shetland Ponies were attacked by a swarm of 30,000 angry bees today.

The couple managed to escape but the two miniature horses died from a barrage of stings.

Kristen Beauregard was stung about 200 times and her boyfriend around 50 times as the insects chased and followed them in Pantego, North Texas.

The horrified woman said they were sweeping up “piles and piles” of bees and “it was like a bad movie”.

Ms Beauregard was exercising Trump when he suddenly started jumping and kicking.

She said a monstrous black cloud of bees then appeared and began stinging both of them.

When their attempts to swipe the bees away failed, she jumped into the pool and the pony followed.

The 44-year-old added: “It got all dark, like it was night time, there were so many bees.

“We were trying to stand up in the water but every time we stuck our heads out for air, they would cover us and start stinging us.

“We were trying to breathe and they were stinging us in the face and in the nose.”

A terrified Ms Beauregard managed to escape into her rental home, with bees flying behind her and crashing into windows.

Horrified, she watched Trump frantically run around the yard, rubbing against bushes to wipe off the bees and stumbling.

Her boyfriend, whom she declined to identify, called 911 as the bees overwhelmed Trump and a second horse, Chip.

She said firefighters sprayed a foam substance to clear the bees, and dragged the horses to a pasture to be treated by police and paramedics.

Show horse Chip, six, died before a vet arrived, while Trump spent a night at her clinic but also died.

Equine vet Patricia Tersteeg said: “He had so much swelling in his face, he must have kept his face above water to breathe. That’s where all the bee stings were concentrated.

“He was so overwhelmed by bites that his body could not handle it. That’s way too much for any 250 pound mammal to survive.”

The bees have also killed five hens and a beekeeper has disposed of a nearby hive.

The insects are being tested to see whether they are Africanised or “killer” bees, which are a hybrid of the Western and African honeybees.

A similar incident took place in Texas last June, when a huge swarm of killer bees attacked and killed a man with more than 3,000 stings.

Larry Goodwin, 62, was attacked by the bees when he was mowing a neighbor’s pasture with his tractor in Moody, Texas.