Man found dead in jaws of python

A MAN searching for his brother on a rubber plantation near Segamat in southern-central Malaysia found him being swallowed by a large python.

The snake was coiled around the dead body of Ee Heng Chuan, 29, a rubber tapper, with the victim's head gripped in its jaws.

It is believed to be the first substantiated case of a python attacking an adult human for ingestion in modern Malaysian history, although rural folklore is replete with tales of people disappearing down the throats of snakes.

When Ee had not returned three hours after going outside to start a generator, his mother sent her other son to look for him.

Realising that he could not free his brother from the snake's grip, Ee Heng Huan shouted for help and ran to a nearby police station.

When plantation workers who went to the scene shone torches on the python, it released Ee's head in a violent shaking motion and slithered away towards surrounding undergrowth.

By that time, police had arrived and Sergeant Abu Samah killed the snake with four shots from his rifle.

Sergeant Samah said the snake, which measured seven metres in length and weighed 140 kilograms, had squeezed Ee until he died.

University Malaya Zoological Department naturalist Dr Khew Bong Heang, said the python was one of the biggest ever found in Malaysia and was surprised it had been trying to swallow an adult human.

'To the best of my knowledge, this is the first such incident to be reported in Malaysia,' he said.

He said pythons regularly devoured smaller animals, such as chickens and goats but humans were not normally a part of their diet in Malaysia. However, in Indonesia it was quite common to hear of python attacks on humans. But they mainly involved children.

Dr Khew said the attack on Ee was unusual because snakes by nature tried to avoid human contact.

'It is only when provoked that the reptile will attack,' he said.

Dr Khew said it was rare for a python to grow to seven metres. The world's longest recorded python was a reptile measuring 10 metres, which was shot dead in Celebes, Indonesia in 1912, but the average length was 6.25 metres.

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