Python swallows Indonesian woman

For the second time in barely more than a year, an Indonesian villager has been swallowed whole by a python.

Wa Tiba, 54, left her home on Muna island to visit her cornfield on Thursday night, according to the Jakarta Post. The field is about a half mile from her house, surrounded by cliffs, caves and a certain number of reticulated pythons, the longest snakes in the world.

The snakes normally feed on smaller mammals. Attacks on humans are supposed to be as rare as winning the lottery and being struck by lightning at the same time, according to a Washington Post report.

When Tiba had not returned by sunrise, her sister went to the field to look for her. She found only Tiba’s footprints, her flashlight, her machete and slippers.

Friday morning, about 100 people from the village of Persiapan Lawela combed the fields, Agence France-Presse reported. They found the snake a few dozen yards from Tiba’s belongings. It was 23 feet long and so bloated it could barely move.

The villagers killed the snake and laid it out on the ground. The villagers crowded around it as a man knelt and carefully cut across the bulge with a machete.

“When they cut open the snake’s belly, they found Tiba’s body still intact with all her clothes,” said the village chief, Faris, who uses only one name. “She was swallowed first from her head.”