An Indonesian woman has been found in the belly of a giant python after the swollen snake was captured near where she vanished while tending her vegetable garden, police said Saturday.

The body of Wa Tiba (54) was found on Friday when villagers cut open the seven-metre (23-foot) python which was found bloated in the village of Persiapan Lawela on the island of Muna, offshore of Sulawesi.

“Residents were suspicious the snake swallowed the victim, so they killed it, then carried it out of the garden,” said local police chief Hamka.

“The snake’s belly was cut open and the body of the victim was found inside.”

Massive hunt

Some 100 residents, including worried relatives, launched a search for the woman after she failed to return from her garden Thursday night.

Mr. Hamka said villagers found the giant serpent lying about 30 metres from Tiba’s sandals and machete, adding she was swallowed head first and her body was found intact.

The garden in which she disappeared was at the base of a rocky cliff, pockmarked by caves, and known to be home to snakes, Mr. Hamka added.

Giant pythons, which regularly top six metres, are commonly found in Indonesia and the Philippines.

While the serpents have been known to attack small animals, attempts to eat people are rare.

In March last year, a farmer was killed by a python in the village of Salubiro on Sulawesi island.</s>The woman's body was found inside the reptile's stomach on Friday, some 50 yards from the garden where she had been working.

A 54-year-old mother from the Southeast Sulawesi province in Indonesia was discovered inside the belly of a giant python measuring 23 feet (seven meters) in length, reports Fox News.

The woman was named Wa Tiba and was a resident of the village on Muna Island. The news of her horrific death broke on Saturday, when the village chief, Faris — who, like many Indonesian people, only goes by one name — told the media that Wa Tiba had gone missing on June 14.

When the locals noticed that she never made it home from her vegetable garden near the village, a search party of close to 100 people, including distraught family members, went off to look for her, notes the Daily Mail.

The woman’s relatives searched the garden for any sign of Wa Tiba, but all that they could find were a few of her belongings, including a pair of sandals, a flashlight, and a machete.

The very next day, the locals were shocked to stumble upon the large serpent lying a mere 50 yards from Wa Tiba’s garden. Because the enormous reptile had a swollen belly, the search party suspected that the animal had attacked and eaten Wa Tiba.

In order to find out what happened to the missing woman, the locals decided to kill the 23-foot-long python and cut open its abdomen.

“Residents were suspicious the snake swallowed the victim, so they killed it, then carried it out of the garden,” the local police chief, Hamka, said in a statement. “The snake’s belly was cut open and the body of the victim was found inside.”

Macabre footage posted online shows the villagers dissecting the serpent’s stomach with what appears to be a machete and cutting out the woman’s lifeless body, Newsweek reports. Some of the horrific footage has been publicized by the British media outlet Express and by the New York Post.

Faris told the press that Wa Tiba’s body was found intact and fully clothed.

“Everyone cried and was in shock. That poor woman. It looked like a horror movie. The people are terrified, afraid to go outside,” local villager Ayu Kartika told the journalists.

While python attacks on human rarely occur, the area in which Wa Tiba’s garden is located in a known snake habitat. The vegetable garden stands at the base of a rocky cliff, which harbors a large number of caves where snakes are known to dwell, notes Hamka.

Last year, a 25-year-old Indonesian farmer from a remote village on the island of West Sulawesi shared the same fate as Wa Tiba. The farmer fell prey to a 23-foot reticulated python and was discovered in a similar manner at the end of March 2017.

According to Prof. Harry Greene from Cornell University in New York, who commented on last year’s gruesome incident in an interview for USA Today, a large python could kill a human in a matter of minutes, by coiling around their body and asphyxiating its victim.

A serpent of this size would only need about an hour to swallow a human body, states the media outlet.

“It would be extremely difficult for me to save my life without help,” Greene said. “It wouldn’t take very long and it would be awful.”</s>Body found in Madison County may be missing woman</s>The victim, 54-year-old Wa Tiba, went missing while checking her vegetable garden near her village on Muna island in Southeast Sulawesi province on Friday, according to the village chief, Faris.

On Sunday, her family went to look for her at the garden but found only her belongings, including sandals and a flashlight, said Faris, who uses a single name.

The family and villagers launched a search for the woman, and found the snake with a bloated belly about 50 metres (yards) from where her belongings were found.

The villagers killed the snake and carried it to the village.

"When they cut open the snake's belly they found Tiba's body still intact with all her clothes," Faris said.

"She was swallowed first from her head."

Videos posted on some websites showed villagers slicing open the python's carcass to reveal the woman's body.

Faris said the victim's garden, about 1 kilometre (half a mile) from her house, is located in a rocky area with caves and cliffs believed to contain many snakes.

Reticulated pythons, which are widespread in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia, grab onto their prey with dozens of sharp curved teeth and then squeeze it to death before swallowing it whole.

In the wild they are known to eat monkeys, pigs and other mammals.

It was the second python attack on a human in Indonesia since March last year, when a 25-year-old man was swallowed whole by a python in West Sulawesi province.</s>Indonesian woman dies after being swallowed whole by a python

An Indonesian mother has died after being swallowed whole by a 23-foot-long python.

The woman, Wa Tiba, 54, went missing while tending to her vegetable garden near her village on Muna Island in Southeast Sulawesi province on Thursday, according to the village chief, Faris.

When her family went to look for her, they found only her belongings in the garden, including her sandals, a machete and a flashlight.

The village subsequently launched a search for her but were horrified to find the python with a severely bloated belly just 50 yards from the garden.

Faris said the villagers killed the snake and when they cut open its belly, they found the woman’s body still intact wearing all her clothes. – READ MORE</s>An Indonesian woman who had gone missing was found inside a 23-foot-long python which apparently swallowed her.

The woman’s body was found inside the reptile’s body after villagers sliced open the python’s carcass.

The victim, 54-year-old Wa Tiba, went missing while checking her vegetable garden near her village on Thursday evening.

On Friday, her family went to look for her at the garden but found only her belongings, including sandals and a flashlight.

The family and villagers launched a search for the woman, and found the snake with a bloated belly about 50 yards from where her belongings were found.

The villagers killed the snake and carried it to the village and when they cut open the snake’s belly they found Tiba’s body still intact with all her clothes.

Residents shared the gruesome video of retrieving the woman’s body on social media.

Reticulated pythons, which are widespread in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia, grab onto their prey with dozens of sharp curved teeth and then squeeze it to death before swallowing it whole.

Reports of humans being killed by pythons are extremely rare. In the wild they are known to eat monkeys, pigs and other mammals.

However, this is not the first time that a python has attacked a human being in Indonesia. Last year a 25-year-old man was swallowed whole by a similar serpent.</s>An Indonesian mother has died after being swallowed whole by a 23-foot-long python.

The woman, Wa Tiba, 54, went missing while tending to her vegetable garden near her village on Muna Island in Southeast Sulawesi province on Thursday, according to the village chief, Faris.

When her family went to look for her, they found only her belongings in the garden, including her sandals, a machete and a flashlight.

The village subsequently launched a search for her but were horrified to find the python with a severely bloated belly just 50 yards from the garden.

Faris said the villagers killed the snake and when they cut open its belly, they found the woman's body still intact wearing all her clothes.

Local police chief Hamka, who only has one name like many Indonesians, said: “Residents were suspicious the snake swallowed the victim, so they killed it, then carried it out of the garden.

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“The snake’s belly was cut open and the body of the victim was found inside.”

Local villager Ayu Kartika said: "Everyone cried and was in shock. That poor woman. It looked like a horror movie. The people are terrified, afraid to go outside.”</s>After being declared missing following her disappearance on Thursday, June 14, 2018, an Indonesian woman has been found dead inside a python on the Island of Sulawesi.

Detik.com reports that the authorities in Southeast Sulawesi province, as well as villagers,, as well as villagers, during their search for the 54-year-old woman later identified as Wa Tiba.

According to the reports, Wa Tiba's things were found in the area, causing suspicion that the snake might have swallowed her.

The Chief of local police, Agus Ramos said, "The villagers who were suspicious brought the python back to the village and cut it open. She was found dead inside the snake with the body intact."

In a similar occurrence, a man was also reportedly swallowed by a snake at a palm oil plantation in West Sulawesi in March 2017.

Residents of a village in Indonesia were thrown into shock when a missing farmer was discovered inside the belly of a was caught near close to the place where the man had vanished while harvesting his crops.

According to Hindustan Times, the body of the 25-year-old man identified as Akbar was found when local people cut open the 23-foot python after it was in the village of Salubiro, on the eastern island of Sulawesi on Monday, March 27, 2017.

“We were immediately suspicious that the snake had swallowed Akbar because around the site, we found palm fruit, his harvesting tool, and a boot,” a senior village official, Junaidi, told reporters.

Worried by the absence of Akbar after he had gone to his plantation on Sunday, his relatives launched a search for him to no avail.

ALSO READ: Picture of a farmer squeezing goats out of snake goes viral

Junaidi said the snake had swallowed the farmer whole, adding that it was the only such fatality recorded in the region.

The breed of snake, which regularly tops 20 feet, is commonly found in Indonesia and the Philippines.</s>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 was 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. Nevertheless, just such a horror took place on an adjacent island last year, when a man's body was extracted from a 23-foot-long python, shown in a gruesome YouTube video.

Tiba had been concerned about wild boars, not so much snakes, as she walked through her cornfield that night, the Jakarta Post reported. The pigs had been raiding the crops lately, thus the inspection.

When she 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.

In the morning on Friday, 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. A long bulge midway down its body had a foreboding look to it.

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

He parted the snake flesh, and it was much as it had been on the other island a year earlier. Tiba lay intact inside the snake, clothed just as she had when she went to check the corn.

She probably didn't die inside the snake: A reticulated python secures its prey with a bite, then wraps its body around the victim, squeezing down until the victim cannot breathe, before consuming, according to The Associated Press.

At least, that's what they normally do.

It's so rare for humans to be eaten, The Post wrote, that it's more common to see hoaxes. A single photo of a snake digesting a pig has been used to falsely claim attacks on humans in China, Africa and across Southeast Asia.

In Indonesia, however, two people have now lost to those odds.</s>A woman who has been missing since Thursday was found dead inside a python on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia.

The incident occurred on June 14, 2015 when 54-year-old Wa Tiba went to check her garden. By Friday morning, Wa Tiba was not yet home, so residents and police went in search of her.

Local media reported today that villagers and authorities in Southeast Sulawesi province found the woman’s belongings but didn’t see her.

They eventually found a python that was so swollen and couldn’t move so they suspected it might have swallowed her.

“The villagers who were suspicious brought the python back to the village and cut it open. She was found dead inside the snake with the body intact,” local police chief Agus Ramos said.
A missing Indonesian woman's body is found inside a python, being one of only two fully documented cases of a human being consumed by a snake.