This year, several reptile attacks have made the news in Indonesia, with the scaly beasts claiming human victims during each gruesome incident. However, one man in the Riau province seemingly beat all the odds by not only surviving his encounter with a 7-meter python but killing the snake as well.

Robert Nababan, a 37-year-old resident of the Indagiri Hulu regency of Riau, is now resting in a hospital after claiming that he wrestled with the gigantic snake. In his weak physical state, he briefly told reporters the story of his battle with the beast.

According to Robert, he was driving home on his motorcycle from his job as a security guard at a palm oil plantation near his village on Saturday evening. He then came across two pedestrians who wanted to cross the road but stopped in their tracks when they saw the python lying in the middle of the road.

“I tried to catch it (the python). It bit my arm, and we wrestled for a while,” Robert said, as quoted by Detik today.

Unfortunately, before Robert could go on with his story, his family kicked out the journalists who were reporting on the story from the hospital room so that Robert could get some rest.

While we don’t yet have the specifics of the fight between man and snake, the latter’s carcass is being kept as a trophy in Robert’s village, where its long body is tied between two trees for everyone, including children, to see (see photo above).

Considering the size of that snake, it’s incredible that Robert reportedly only suffered deep cuts on his left arm and fingers from the python’s bite, as well as exhaustion.

In March of this year, a man in West Sulawesi wasn’t as lucky when he encountered a 7-meter python (rescuers found him dead inside the snake’s stomach, having been swallowed whole). More recently, four people, including a “crocodile shaman”, have fallen victim to reported crocodile attacks throughout Indonesia.

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