Mega-python eats woman in Indonesian village

A mum-of-two was found devoured in her entirety after a devastating snake attack in Indonesia with villagers saying they are now scared to go outside. 

A woman was devoured whole by a snake in a terrifying deathly tale from Indonesia, The Mirror news outlet reports. 

Mum-of-two Wa Tiba, 54, was discovered inside a seven-metre-long python in the country in 2018.

The strange event was noted for being out of the ordinary, shocking locals and worrying people there could be more to come.

Wa Tiba went missing while checking her vegetable garden, after which her sandals and machete were found.

Reports say a snake with a bloated belly was then seen around 50 metres away.

Tiba is said to have left her house at night with a torch because she wanted to stop wild boars from raiding her patch, but the village is in a rocky area with caves and cliffs said to be swarming with snakes.

She was found whole and still in her clothes.

Police chief Agung Ramos said: “People took the snake into the village and started splitting the snake.

“The suspicions were true and there was a body intact inside the snake. Unfortunately, the victim was lifeless.”

Locals hunted down the snake and cut it open to find Wa Tiba inside, swallowed head-first and with her feet close to the snake's mouth.

Eyewitness in Southeast Sulawesi, Ayu Kartika said at the time: “Everyone was crying, everybody was shocked.

"The poor woman. This is like a horror movie. People are terrified.

“We are scared to go outside. We can only pray for safety.”

Pythons can reach up to 10 metres in length and tend to ambush their prey.

They wrap their powerful muscles around victims and literally squeeze the life out of them.

The prey usually has a cardiac arrest or suffocates.   

The python's huge and stretchy jaws mean they can devour large animals and will eat them whole.

This means humans have been known to fall victim to an opportunist snake.

Conservation and research officer for Wildlife Reserves Singapore Mary-Ruth Low told: "Once they reach a certain size it's almost like they don't bother with rats anymore because the calories are not worth it.

"In essence, they can go as large as their prey goes."