This is the moment a builder finds cold comfort from an agonising attack by a swarm of hundreds of angry bees by sticking his head in a shop’s ice cream freezer.

Construction worker Joao Batista, 49, was attacked by the swarm after their hive was disturbed near his building site in Anapolis, Goias State, Brazil, on 8th December.

Hair-raising street CCTV footage of Batista trying to flee the swarm shows him staggering down the street with the angry bees buzzing around his head.

One Good Samaritan opens his car door offering to shelter him from the swarm but Batista simply walks woozily forwards.

But when he gets to a grocery store’s streetside ice cream freezer he lifts the lid and sticks his whole head in as a sales assisting tries to shoe away the stingers.

Meanwhile, as the footage runs out, a shopworker runs over with a huge bucket of water and empties it all over Batista’s head brushing away the bees with his hands.

Local media reports that medics later treated Batista for 70 bee stings to his face neck and arms.

His grateful wife Ivanilda Goncalves thanked the shopkeepers for their help.

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She told local media: “From the amount of stings, if it weren’t for these two people, he wouldn’t have been able to get off the ground.

“He fell and rolled on the floor. They were the key to helping him.”

Relieved wife Ivanilda added: “I’m grateful. I don’t know them, but I want to meet them.

“I want to thank them because, in my opinion, if it weren’t for their help, Joao wouldn’t be here today.”

Batista, now recovering, said: “The despair is so great, the pain is so great that you think you are going to die instantly.”

Firefighters later subdued the bees and moved their hive to a safer place.

Fire Department Lieutenant Wagner Jose Cardoso explained: “We spray water mist and the bees think that it is starting to rain and retreat inside their hive. “

But he warned other possible victims: “The only thing you can do is run. When a bee kills itself by releasing a sting, it releases a pheromone that will attract others.

“This way you will suffer more attacks.”

Biologist Luana Lisboa said: “Bees are very peaceful animals and do not usually attack humans or other animals unless they feel threatened or feel that their nest or hive is in danger.”

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Experts advise anyone under attack by a swarm to seek shelter in a building as fast as they can.

Erika Thompson is a swarm removal expert at Texas Beeworks.

Erika, whose ‘Texas Bee Lady’ Instagram account has more than 1.4 million followers, said: “Bees and other bugs are running out of safe spaces to live and work. So as humans encroach on their environment, these interactions between species are naturally going to increase.”

When bees sting humans, the insects push a barbed stinger, which contains proteins that affect the immune system, into the skin.

Bee stings can be life-threatening to those allergic to the substances bees inject with their stingers.

In the UK there are around ten deaths a year caused by allergies to bee or wasp stings, says Allergy UK.