The mayor of a Montreal suburb has died after being stung by wasps. Such deaths are exceptionally rare in Canada.
Lucie F. Roussel stepped on wasps’ nest while gardening at her cottage in the town of Stratford, Quebec, about 200 kilometres east of Montreal, on Sunday afternoon.
She was stung more than a dozen times and died in hospital in nearby Thetford Mines a short time later.
She was 51 and had no known allergy to wasp stings.
Mr. Roussel was pre-deceased by her husband and had two children, a daughter, 18, and a son, 19.
She had been mayor of La Prairie, a bedroom community of 24,000 residents on Montreal’s South Shore, since 2005. In 2012, she ran unsuccessfully for Quebec’s Liberal Party in a provincial election.
Flags on municipal buildings in La Prairie are flying at half staff.
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