A woman was swallowed by a 20ft python – but it wasn’t the first time snakes ate humans alive

It is an image no one wanted to witness – the body of a mother-of-four being carved out from inside a 20ft long python.

Sadly, this is not the first a person was swallowed alive by a snake, not even just in Indonesia.

Farida, 45, had disappeared while walking to a market in the village of Kalempang, Indonesia, on Thursday.

Her body was discovered the next day when a search party cut open the bulging belly of a python with a machete. It had swallowed her head first.

Five people eaten in Indonesia

Farida is at least the fifth person to end up in the stomach of a snake in Indonesia since 2017, CBS News reported.

Another woman in the same region around Sulawesi was swallowed whole by an even bigger python, measuring 23ft long, in June 2018.

Wa Tiba, 54, had vanished while checking on her vegetable garden, which sat at the bottom of a rocky cliff where snakes were known to live.

This prompted a huge search by her neighbours, who found her sandals and machete lying near a python with a bloated belly the next day, the BBC reported.

Local police chief Hamka said: ‘Residents were suspicious the snake swallowed the victim, so they killed it, then carried it out of the garden.

‘The snake’s belly was cut open and the body of the victim was found inside.’

Just a year earlier, a 25-year-old farmer, Akbar Salubiro, was swallowed whole by a python while harvesting his crops on a palm oil plantation, also on Sulawesi.

The 23ft snake was seen slithering awkwardly away from the scene.

Junaidi, a senior official in Salubiro village, said: ‘We were immediately suspicious that the snake had swallowed Akbar because around the site we found palm fruit, his harvesting tool and a boot.’

It seems plantations are bad luck, because in October 2022, another 54-year-old woman never returned home from the one where she worked.

Her husband sounded the alarm after finding Jahrah’s sandals, headscarf, jacket and the tools on the rubber plantation, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra – popular with tourists.

The next morning, they found a python, The Guardian reported.

Local police chief Harefa said: ‘When the security team and residents conducted a search around the rubber plantation, then we found a python 7 metres long.

It is this snake that is suspected of preying on the victim. After we caught him, we found the victim’s body in the snake’s stomach

How often do snakes eat humans?

Despite the shocking number of people eaten by snakes in Indonesia in recent years, it’s actually quite rare for snakes to swallow humans.

The reticulated pythons responsible for these cases can reach lengths of up to 32ft, more than five times the height of an average adult man.

However, they usually prey on animals even smaller than humans, like monkeys, pigs and family pets, CBS News reported.

Sometimes though, they’re bold in their ambitions.

There are even cases of snakes devouring crocodiles and alligators – among the most ferocious of predators – in Australia, Myanmar and the USA.

In one 2014 case, a python coiled its way around a desperately struggling crocodile in Queensland before finally killing it and eating it, the BBC reported.

When snakes do strike humans, it’s usually with a simple bite.

There are roughly 5.4million snake bites each year, of which up to 2.7million result in poisoning, according to the World Health Organisation.

In Indonesia, and other Southeast Asian countries where reticulated pythons are common, it is children and agricultural workers in poorer, rural communities who are most at risk, The Guardian reported.

Considering that, it’s little surprise the victims of Indonesia’s snake attacks are mostly women and farm workers.

How snakes attack

If a python did attack you, it would either be a defensive bite, or – more nightmarish – it would lie in wait before approaching you with stealth.

Pythons kill through constriction, latching onto their prey with dozens of sharp, curved teeth.

They then squeeze them to death before swallowing their meal whole.

It takes just a couple of minutes to die this way, as blood stops flowing to the brain and airways are blocked.

But swallowing their food can take pythons an hour.

That’s about as much time as it would take to watch an episode of Game of Thrones, according to USA Today.

Dr. Harry W. Greene, a professor at Cornell University, said: ‘It would be extremely difficult for me to save my life without help.

‘It wouldn’t take very long and it would be awful.’

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