In this video grab taken on November 24, 2018 villagers try to capture a large python in Padang Pariaman, in West Sumatra. A group of Indonesian villagers were looking to catch some eels, but they got an eight-meter (26 foot) long python instead. (FILE PHOTO by Ronal EFENDI COTO/Agence France-Presse)
MAKASSAR — A woman has been found dead inside the belly of a snake after it swallowed her whole in central Indonesia, a local official said Saturday.
The husband of 45-year-old Farida and residents of Kalempang village in South Sulawesi province discovered her on Friday inside the reticulated python, which measured around five meters (16 feet).
The mother-of-four had gone missing Thursday night and failed to return home, forcing a search effort, village head Suardi Rosi told AFP.
READ: 7-meter-long python swallows Indonesian woman
Her husband “found her belongings… which made him suspicious. The villagers then searched the area. They soon spotted a python with a large belly,” said Suardi.
“They agreed to cut open the python’s stomach. As soon as they did, Farida’s head was immediately visible.”
Farida was found fully clothed inside the snake.
READ: Indonesian man found dead in belly of 7m-long python
Such incidents are considered extremely rare but several people have died in Indonesia in recent years after being swallowed whole by pythons.
Last year, residents in Southeast Sulawesi’s Tinanggea district killed an eight-meter python, which was found strangling and eating one of the farmers in a village.
In 2018, a 54-year-old woman was found dead inside a seven-metre python in Southeast Sulawesi’s Muna town.
And the year before, a farmer in West Sulawesi went missing before being found eaten alive by a four-meter python at a palm oil plantation.