Kenyan man bites snake

If you find yourself bound by a giant python, what should you do?

According to Ben Nyaumbe, the answer is to bite back.

The Kenyan farm manager was preparing a meal of maize porridge when a snake coiled itself around his feet. He was soon being dragged towards a tree. With nothing else to fight with, he resorted to his teeth.

"It waggled its ragged and scary tail on my mouth. I had to bite it as I struggled," he said.

After an hour of battling, the snake pulled him into the nearest tree. Mr Nyaumbe managed to free an arm to reach his mobile phone and called his lawyer, Tukero ole Kina, who rushed to the scene with two policemen.

The snake hissed so aggressively that it scared off one of the officers. But the farm manager covered the python's head with his shirt while his rescuers tied a rope to it and pulled it down.

Eventually the outnumbered snake exhausted itself and let go. "Finally we both came down, landing with a thud," Mr Nyaumbe said.

The snake was captured and locked up - but the next day, it escaped. But Mr Nyaumbe does not have an answer for that part of the problem.

- INDEPENDENT