A mother-of-five was killed and half-swallowed by a 30ft python as she walked alone through an Indonesian forest.
Siriati, 30, was on her way to meet her brother to go to the market together when the giant snake attacked near the village of Siteba, in Luwu Regency, South Sulawesi, on Tuesday morning.
When she didn’t turn up, the brother contacted Siriati’s husband Adiansya, 30, who retraced her route.
After spotting her sandals, he was horrified to see the python eating his wife around 16ft away, with her legs sticking out of its mouth.
He killed the snake and dragged Siriati out, but she was already dead.
Authorities were alerted and her body was recovered and taken home before being buried in Siteba the next day.
Siteba Village Secretary, Iyang, 38, said the python killed the mother at around 7:30am local time.
He said: ‘The victim wanted to go out to buy her child’s medicine. Her youngest son is three years old. She was visiting her brother and had to go through the forest first
‘Her brother waited for a long time, but the victim didn’t come. That’s why her brother called the victim’s husband. The husband said that Suriati had been gone since early morning.
‘So the husband went looking for his wife, he found her sandals on the road in the middle of the forest.
‘He suspected that they had been eaten by a snake because there were snake tracks there. This snake more or less dragged the victim five metres from the location.’
Walenrang Police Chief, Adjunct Police Commissioner Idul, said that Siriati’s body was found intact ‘but perhaps the bones had been crushed’.
He added that there was a wound on the victim’s leg which was suspected to be a snake bite.
Idul said: ‘We think it was a snake bite. After being bitten, it immediately wrapped itself around the leg and finally paralysed the victim.’
The death comes just weeks after another woman was attacked and swallowed whole by a 20ft python, also in South Sulawesi.
In very similar circumstances, mother-of-four Farida was walking through a wooded area on her way to a market on June 6, this time in the village of Kalempang, when the snake struck.
Her body was later cut out of the reptile’s insides.
Pythons thrive in the lush Indonesian jungle where they have a rich food supply – helping them reach sizes capable of killing and eating people.
Limited urban development across the nation’s archipelago of 17,000 islands has also allowed the snake population to grow unrestricted.
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