An unfortunate 26-foot long python killed by an Indonesian security guard in a bloody fight to the death has been eaten by the village.
Robert Nababan instigated fisticuffs when he spotted the huge python blocking the path of some pedestrians. Not exactly you’re normal commute home.
While most of us would probably choose to wait it out in the cradle of safety for the python to be on his merry way, brave Robert Nababan was having none of it.
In a serious case of road impatience which nearly brought Nababan to an early demise, the 37-year-old decided to hurry the snake along with the power of his bare hands – nearly losing one of them in the process.
He was on his way home from work, as a security guard at an oil plantation, when he saw two pedestrians being held up from crossing a road by the giant snake, so he stepped in and became locked in a bloody battle with the snake as it sunk its teeth into his arm.
After an exhausting struggle he killed the reptile but was rushed to hospital for his wounds to be treated, suffering from a deep incision in his arm and severe exhaustion.
Local police told news agency AFP that his arm was nearly severed off.
Speaking from his bed, Nababan simply said:
I tried to catch it, my hand was bitten and we wrestled for a while.
Mr Elinaryon, head of the Batang Gansal district government, told the BBC:
You really shouldn’t try to do that… of course the snake, if you try and kill it, is going to get really angry and that’s when it fights back!
I have heard from friends that they are really tasty. I mean it’s a 7m snake – that’s a lot of meat!
The blood, some people believe, has healing qualities and can be used in medicine.
The security guard, from the Indragiri Hulu Regency area of the country, is now recovering in hospital but doctors say he could lose his hand.
Elinyaron explained how common giant snakes are in the area:
[There are] at least 10 sightings of them a year. In the dry season they come out looking for a drink, in the wet they come out to take a bath in the rain.
There are usually lots of mice in the palm oil plantations and that’s what they are hunting.
The defeated, now deceased python was left on display in the village – hanging across a washing line – before it was made into dinner.
Mr Nababan was lucky in his battle to the death with the giant snake. In March a 25-year old villager from the island of Sulawesi was found in the belly of a 23-foot long reticulated python.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.