Jakarta. A 40-year-old farmer was found dead inside a giant python after disappearing while returning home in the North Maluku province, police said on Tuesday.

The victim, identified as Hasim Lembesi, was a resident of Waisakai village in East North Mangoli district, Sula Islands Regency.

According to local police, Hasim left a neighboring village on Monday evening but never returned home, prompting relatives and residents to organize a search.

Searchers found his belongings and bloodstains along a roadside he was believed to have traveled before discovering a massive python nearby with an unusually swollen body.

Villagers, assisted by police officers, killed the snake before cutting open its stomach, where they found Hasim's body. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Jaya Afandi M. Soamole, spokesperson for the Sula Islands Police, confirmed the incident.

"At around 8:30 p.m. local time, the victim was found dead after being attacked by a python. Police officers and local residents who had been searching for him evacuated the body and brought it back to his family home in Waisakai village for burial," Jaya said in a statement on Tuesday.

Amateur video circulating locally showed residents and police tracking the snake through vegetation before killing it. The footage also showed the recovery of the victim's body after the python was cut open.

Fatal python attacks on humans are extremely rare but have occurred in Indonesia, home to some of the world's largest reticulated pythons. Most incidents are reported in rural areas where people work alone in forests or plantations, bringing them into close contact with the nonvenomous constrictor snakes.

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