This is the horrifying moment a missing woman was found eaten alive by a giant python after locals cut her out of the snake’s belly.
Mother-of-four Farida, 50, disappeared while she was walking through woodland to sell food at a local market near her home in the village of Kalempang, Indonesia, on June 6.
The python plunged its teeth into her leg as it coiled around her body and suffocated her before swallowing her head first.
Farida’s husband Noni, 55, became worried she had not returned home by nighttime and alerted other locals who began searching.
They found a mammoth 20ft long python sprawled out in the undergrowth the next day, with a large bulge in its stomach. Its huge head can be seen a video from the scene, with its tongue flicking from its lips.
This is the horrifying moment mother-of-four Farida, 50, was found eaten alive by a giant python
Locals found the mammoth 20ft long python sprawled out in the undergrowth the next day, with a large bulge in its stomach
The villagers used a blanket to protect Farida’s modesty as they took her out of the snake’s stomach
Suspecting the worst, the devastated husband and several villagers sliced through the thick skin with a machete.
Farida had been entombed inside the snake’s stomach covered in slime. She was removed and taken away for a religious burial in the Pitu Riawa district of Sidrap Regency, South Sulawesi province.
Noni said: ‘I am forever sorry that I let my wife go out alone. 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..’
Suardi Rosi, Head of the village of Kalempang where Farida and her family lived, said: ‘The victim’s husband looked for his wife in the nearby forest area because she had not been home for a day.
‘He found a snake with a large stomach. He immediately suspected that his wife had been eaten by the python.
The devastated husband and several villagers sliced through the thick skin with a machete
The python plunged its teeth into her leg as it coiled around her body and suffocated her before swallowing her head first
Farida was removed and taken away for a religious burial in the Pitu Riawa district of Sidrap Regency, South Sulawesi province, by the villagers
Villagers brought Farida out of the jungle and put her in a car to be taken to her husband’s house before being buried
Several other villages came along to help catch the python
A python attack had never happened before in the village, but local leaders have now warned people to not walk alone in the woods
‘Several other villages then helped him to catch the python. The body of his wife was found in the stomach of a snake. She was taken away to his house before being buried.
‘This has not happened before in our village. We have warned everybody to be careful when they walk through the woods. Women should be accompanied by someone.’
Indonesia has a large population of giant reticulated pythons in its vast and dense jungle, where they can thrive. Unlike in neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia, urban developments have not limited their growth.
The last documented case of a human being eaten by a python was in 2022, also in Indonesia.
In that case, Jahrah, 54, disappeared while collecting rubber from a plantation in Jambi province before horrified locals found a giant python stretched out in a clearing among trees with a large bulge in its tummy two days later on Sunday morning, October 23.
Anto, Head of the Terjun Gajah village where Jahrah lived, said the snake is believed to have attacked Jahrah by biting her and then wrapping itself around her to suffocate her. She was then swallowed whole in a painful ordeal that would have taken at least two hours from her head to her toes.
In 2018, another woman was eaten alive by a python. Mother-of-two Wa Tiba, 54, went missing while checking on her vegetable garden on Muna Island in Sulawesi province. A huge search was mounted by local people.
Her sandals and machete were found a day later – a giant python with a bloated belly was lying about 30 metres away.