A 24-year-old man in Australia died after being bitten on his finger by a snake while trying to protect his dog, which had the reptile in its mouth.

The man was bitten in the rural town of Tamworth, north-west of Sydney, and died within an hour in hospital despite being administered with antivenom.

He was bitten by a native brown snake, the deadliest in Australia. Its venom is among the most lethal in the world.

The man was reportedly bitten and then rushed to his mother, saying: “Mum, look what bit me”.

The man’s mother reportedly put the snake in a coffee jar and rushed her son to hospital.

Police took custody of the snake and left it with a vet. The man’s identity has not been released.

“He went to investigate his small dog barking and found the dog to have a small brown snake in his mouth,” Sergeant Josh McKenzie told ABC News.

“He’s then gone to try and separate the dog from the snake and was bitten on the finger.”

Harley Jones, a professional snake catcher in Australia, said brown snakes are “not dangerous” and only attack humans if they try to pick them up.

“Grabbing a brown snake in any scenario is the craziest thing to do,” he told The Telegraph.