Hornet attack

Hi, you might have read about hornets raiding hives. I don’t think I had ever seen a hornet close up until the other day when one kidnapped and killed one of our bees. We were right there when the brazen hornet hussy marched up grabbed a bee and pummelled it directly in front of us.
This hornet was nearly the size of a small shrew and I have to say me and hubby stepped back out of fear ourselves. The whole hive was roaring too, this is the loud hum that the bees make to communicate to each other that there is an incident taking place or there might be a threat. We felt very protective of the bees and like they had our back too. They were very upset as you can imagine and a few of them gathered at the hive entrance I think probably from shock but certainly they were the guard just checking out for further threats.

This is the size of the blighter though those are not my fingers, not hubby’s either. I don’t wear beige. There are a great many mug shots of offenders out there and this one as the showed the greatest likeness so I have borrowed it.

Do you recognise this hornet?