Warning: Graphic contents. The gruesome video shows dozens of locals surrounding the snake and dissecting its stomach to retrieve the lifeless body of the mother-of-two Wa Tiba, 54
The alarm was raised when her two children came across her sandals, machete and torch near a patch of bushes that appeared ruffled.
The boys saw the huge python which was barely able to move – having swallowed the woman whole.
Thankful to live in a city with no snakes like this smh pic.twitter.com/kqPEwzRAQ6
— Zainab (@Zkhalil0) June 16, 2018
Villagers cut open the 23-foot python on the island of Muna, Southeast Sulawesi, to retrieve the body.
The shocking scene was captured by locals near where the victim disappeared, which has left neighbours terrified and “praying for their lives”.
Local police chief Hamka said: “Residents were suspicious the snake swallowed the victim, so they killed it, then carried it out of the garden.
The police chief said that the garden where the victim disappeared was at the base of a cliff and known to be a home for snakes.
Resident Ayu Kartika said: “Everybody 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 a safety.”
The victim has to be cut out of the python after she was devoured
The revelation that the snake may have eaten the woman was made after 100 locals launched a search for the woman after she failed to return from her garden.
Giant pythons, which can be up to 30ft long, are often found in Indonesia and the Philippines.
Last year a farmer was killed by a python on the village of Salubiro on the island of Sulawesi
