Snake swallows woman whole in Indonesia

A reticulated python. Photo / File

An Indonesian mother-of-four who went missing in the jungle was found, fully clothed, inside the belly of a six-metre reticulated python.

45-year-old Farida was walking through the jungle to sell food at a local market in Sulawesi when she went missing, AFP reported.

Her husband, Noni, went looking for his wife and found her belongings, before spotting the huge snake with a distended belly.

He ran for help and locals then caught the python and sliced it open, discovering Farida inside.

“They agreed to cut open the python’s stomach. As soon as they did, Farida’s head was immediately visible,” village head Suardi Rosi told AFP.

She was still fully clothed.

“I am forever sorry that I let my wife go out alone,” Noni later told media.

“If I had been with her that day, the snake would not have dared to touch her.

“I feel sorry for the suffering she went through. I am sorry for our family.”

In 2017, a seven-metre python killed and swallowed 25-year-old Akbar Salubiro in Sulawesi.

Neighbours reported hearing cries from the palm grove the night Salubiro disappeared while harvesting palm oil and their fears were confirmed the following morning when he was cut from the massive snake’s stomach.

A huge python caught in Malaysia in 2016 was believed at the time to be the longest snake ever captured, after initial estimates measured the reptile at more than 8m.

Sightings in the wild of even longer snakes have been reported, but not confirmed. A python shot in Indonesia in 1912 was reportedly about 10m long.

Python reticulatus, also known as the Asiatic reticulated python, is native to southeast Asia. They are the world’s longest snakes.

They are non-venomous constrictors and are normally not considered dangerous to humans but large specimens have occasionally claimed human lives.