Officials in Indonesia say a missing woman was swallowed by a 16-foot reticulated python, and video circulating online shows her body being cut out of the snake’s stomach.
The family of the 45-year-old woman reported her missing on Thursday after her husband said she failed to return home in South Sulawesi, according to multiple media outlets citing AFP.
South Sulawesi is a province on the island of Sulawesi surrounded by the Flores Sea.
Her body was discovered inside the large snake by her husband and members of the Kalempang village on Friday after he went looking for her, according to the AFP.
Her husband “found her belongings… which made him suspicious,” the village chief Suardi Rosi told AFP. “The villagers then searched the area. They soon spotted a python with a large belly. They agreed to cut open the python’s stomach. As soon as they did, Farida’s head was immediately visible.”
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Pythons can kill a person in a matter of minutes and swallow them within an hour, Cornell University Professor Dr. Harry W. Greene previously told USA TODAY.
Woman’s body found fully clothed inside python
Footage posted by the Daily Mail and TMZ shows a large python in a wooded are with a large object inside it.
The disturbing video shows someone with their foot on the snake, and later shows someone cutting the object out of the snake.
A black-and-white plaid blanket is seen covering a portion of the snake. Later in the footage posted by Daily Mail, a group of men are seen carrying what appears to be the woman’s body past a group of grieving people. The outlet reported the woman was fully clothed inside the snake’s stomach.
The fatality is not the first time a person was swallowed whole by a python in Indonesia.
In October 2022, a 54-year-old grandmother was found swallowed whole by one in Jambi, a city on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
The grandmother’s family reported her missing after they say she went to collect rubber on a plantation near her home and did not return home.
Betara Jambi Police Chief S. Herafa reportedly said when her husband went to look for her, he found only her sandals, jacket, headscarf and a knife. The woman was later found in the snake’s stomach with her body “largely intact.”