Indonesian woman swallowed whole by python

Woman does not return on collecting rubber from plantation on 23 October

A 54-year-old missing Indonesian woman was eaten alive by a 16ft python, the local police said.

The woman, identified by media by her first name Jahrah, was found dead after being eaten by a python in a rubber plantation at Terjun Gajah village in Indonesia’s Jambi province.

The woman’s body was still in the stomach of the 5m (16ft) long python which was caught on Monday. The moment police found the remains inside the python was captured on video too.

Police said Jahrah failed to return after collecting rubber from a plantation in Jambi province on Sunday.

Her husband started looking for her everywhere but could only find his wife’s sandals, jacket, headscarf and knife.

Jambi police chief AKP Herafa said when the husband returned the next day while trying to find his wife, he stumbled upon a python with a swollen midsection.

The viral video of the python showed one person pinning the head of the snake with a tree branch while others beating it.

Villagers then proceeded to slice open the stomach of the massive python, revealing the missing woman’s body.

Viral Press quoted village head Anto as saying that “everyone was astonished” by the discovery.

“It turned out that the woman we were looking for was in the snake’s stomach,” he said.

Villagers said they had previously also seen an almost 27ft-long python in the area. Local media reported that the villagers were worried there are even “bigger snakes” in the forest.

Police said the entire process of swallowing the woman alive must have taken more than two hours.

While pythons usually eat smaller prey like rats, incidents involving the snakes eating human beings have happened in Indonesia before.

In March 2017, one person was reportedly found in the stomach of a python after being eaten alive on the island of West Sulawesi.

In 2018, a 54-year-old woman indentified as Wa Tiba left her home on Muna island and failed to return. When she failed to return the next day, her sister and 100 villagers found the woman’s footprints, her flashlight, machete and slippers.

Just a dozen yards away from the villager’s belongings was the python, so bloated around its mid section that it could barely move.