Tokyo - A Buddhist priest in Japan caused the destruction of his own temple when trying to smoke out some hornets squatting in the building, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper said Thursday. The 41-year-old tried to burn out a hornet's nest on top of a cupboard in his temple in the central Japanese province Niigata with a home-made bamboo torch.
However, the cupboard caught fire as the angry insects defended their home and attacked the scared priest. The fire soon spread to the rest of the building. While the priest only suffered light burns, the temple burnt down completely.
The priest had intended to move his temple to a new location as it had been damaged in an earthquake, but now will have to rebuild it from scratch, the newspaper said.
