ANIMALS
A five-metre python kills and swallows a woman: “She was completely dressed inside the snake”
The victim disappeared on Thursday. When people found a snake with an enlarged stomach, they decided to open it and see what was inside...
Tragedy has gripped the village of Kaelmpang, a small town in Indonesia. According to local officials, a body found inside a 16-foot snake belongs to Farida, a 45-year-old woman who had been missing since Thursday night.
The leader of that village, Suardi Rosi, explained to AFP that the woman in question disappeared without a trace just a few days ago. A search was launched on the same day and soon after, the culprit was discovered: a five-metre long reticulated python.
‘Farida’s head was immediately visible’ inside the snake
When they found the snake, “they decided to open its stomach and Farida’s head appeared,” said Rosi. Her husband “found her belongings… which made him suspicious. The villagers then searched the area. Soon they saw a python with a big belly,” she explained.
“They agreed to open the python’s stomach. As soon as they did so, Farida’s head was immediately visible. A video published at the time shows how the villagers opened the snake’s body in a wooded area, and then shows the villagers carrying the woman’s body, covered with a blanket.
It is not common for a human to die swallowed by a python. However, according to AFP, in recent years several people have died in Indonesia before being swallowed by this animal, which eats its prey whole. For example, last year, residents of Tinanggea district killed an eight-metre long python that had engulfed a farmer.
The reticulated python is the longest snake in the world, and is native to certain areas of Indonesia, the Philippines, India and Borneo. It can reach eight meters in length and weigh 250 kilograms. Pythons normally hunt rodents, fish, monkeys, deer, and other reptiles. They are, contrary to popular belief, not venomous. Instead of using toxins to kill their prey, they use their huge muscles to suffocate them, squeezing the air out of the lungs breath by breath before swallowing the animal whole using their dislocating jaw bones and stretchy scales.