MAKASSAR, Indonesia, July 3, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - A woman was found dead inside
the belly of a snake after it swallowed her whole in central Indonesia,
police said Wednesday, the second python killing in the province in a month.

Siriati, 36, had gone missing after she left her house Tuesday morning to buy
medicine for her sick child, police said, prompting relatives to launch a
search.

Her husband Adiansa, 30, found her slippers and pants on the ground about 500
metres (yards) from their house in Siteba village, South Sulawesi province.

"Shortly after that, he spotted a snake, about 10 metres from the path. The
snake was still alive," local police chief Idul, who like many Indonesians
has one name, told AFP.

Village secretary Iyang told AFP that Adiansa became suspicious after he
noticed the python's "very large" belly. He called the villagers to help cut
open its stomach, where they found her body.

Such incidents are considered extremely rare, but several people have been
swallowed by pythons in recent years.

A woman was found dead last month inside the belly of a reticulated python in
another district of South Sulawesi.

Last year residents in the province killed an eight-metre python, which was
found strangling and eating one of the farmers in a village.

A 54-year-old woman was found dead in 2018 inside a seven-metre python in
Southeast Sulawesi's Muna town.

And the year before, a farmer in West Sulawesi went missing before being
found being swallowed by a four-metre python at a palm oil plantation.