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A beekeeper from the Netherlands has expressed shock after his ten colonies were set ablaze in a park in the central city of Almere, resulting in the loss of an approximated 500,000 bees.

Harold Stringer mentioned that each hive housed a population of forty to sixty thousand bees, and the idea that someone could kill them was devastating.

"It really hurts that my 10 hives have died," he told regional media.

Law enforcement in Almere, located to the east of Amsterdam, have requested witnesses after the deliberate fire on Tuesday night in the city's scenic Beatrixpark. They posted images of the blaze on social media.

The Netherlands authorities says that more than half of the country's 360 types of bee are at threat of dying out, as the number of bees decreases globally.

The beekeeper said that authorities had informed him an accelerant had been employed to burn the hives, which were sitting on pallets in a wooded part of the garden.

Almost none of the insects survived and he noted that he had doubt the perpetrator would be caught.

Fellow beekeeper Heleen Nieman stated on Dutch radio that she had three hives and wanted to give him one of them.

For Mr Stringer, who looked after the colonies for about almost a decade, the incident means building a new colony in the park from scratch.

But he affirms he will continue his efforts.

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