A woman was found dead in the stomach of a 7-metre python on a plantation where she worked in Indonesia, according to local reports.
The woman, identified as Jahrah, 54, went to work at a rubber tree plantation (trees from the trunk of which natural latex is extracted) in Jambi Province, Sumatra Island, on Sunday morning and her husband reported her disappeared when she did not return home that evening.
Searching for her on Sunday night, her husband discovered the sandals, handkerchief, jacket and tools she used at work and appealed to others to help, police told local media. The next morning, a python was spotted nearby.
"When the security team and residents conducted a search around the plantation, we found a 7-meter long python. After catching it, we found the victim's body in the snake's stomach," local police chief AKP S Harefa told news site Detik (via Guardian).
Pythons, which kill by squeezing, usually eat smaller animals by swallowing their food whole. Cases of human ingestion are rare.
Each year there are about 5.4 million cases of snakebite, of which 1.8-2.7 million lead to envenomation, according to the World Health Organization. Children and agricultural workers in poorer and rural communities are most at risk.
