Had a "big" belly

Five-meter-long snake ate woman and her clothes

The reticulated python is one of the largest snakes in the world.(Bild: Mark Kostich - stock.adobe.com)

A particularly tragic case is currently causing a stir in Indonesia: A reticulated python devoured a 45-year-old woman. However, these giant snakes actually only eat small animals and birds ...

45-year-old Farida had not returned home on Thursday evening and had been missing ever since. Her husband and other residents of the village of Kalempang in the province of South Sulawesi launched a search operation and found the missing woman's personal belongings on Friday.

Shortly afterwards, they "discovered a python with a big belly", Suardi Rosi reported on Saturday. "They agreed to cut open the stomach of the five-metre-long python". The head of the missing woman was immediately visible. The snake had devoured the 45-year-old mother of four fully clothed.

Incidents are becoming more frequent
Reticulated pythons mainly eat smaller animals and birds; they very rarely kill humans. However, there have been several deaths in Indonesia in recent years. Last year, villagers in Southeast Sulawesi killed an eight-metre-long python that had devoured a farmer. In 2018, a 54-year-old woman was found dead in the stomach of a seven-meter-long python in Southeast Sulawesi. In 2017, a man was devoured by a four-metre-long python on a palm oil plantation in West Sulawesi.