News Clippings

Thursday 7 September 1995

Giant python killed after trying to swallow man
By Ian Stewart in Kuala Lumpur

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

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

When plantation workers who went to the scene shone torches on the python, it released the dead man's head with a violent shake and slithered away.

Police arrived and Sgt Abu Samah killed the snake, 23ft long and more than 300lb, with four rifle shots. It had squeezed Mr Ee until he died.

Sgt Samah said: "There were also fang marks on his legs suggesting that he had been caught unaware."

Dr Khew Bong Heang, a naturalist from the University Malaya, said the python was one of the biggest found in Malaysia. He was surprised it had been trying to swallow a man.

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

Dr Khew said it was rare for a python to grow more than 20ft. The world's longest recorded python - just under 33ft - was shot dead in Indonesia in 1912.

News Clippings

Thursday 7 September 1995

Giant python killed after trying to swallow man By Ian Stewart in Kuala Lumpur

Giant python killed after trying to swallow man
By Ian Stewart in Kuala Lumpur