An Indian man suffered an excruciating death when he was swallowed whole by a python after falling asleep drunk outside a liquor store.
Except that he didn’t.
The image and the tale have gone viral in recent days – in one instance cresting 15,000 retweets on the back of one Indian “financial professional”.
But unless this is one globetrotting, very naughty snake, not is all as it seems.
That is unless he wolfed down a man in China in August 2012 and then slithered all the way to Indonesia for another human-shaped meal in January 2013.
Apparently unsated, he then continued on his merry way to South Africa to swallow a woman whole (in an incident apparently witnessed by a reporter in June this year), before continuing to Malaysia to gobble up a small boy in October.
Phew!
It's unclear just what the reptile ate to achieve its bloated size (or even if the image has been manipulated), but while pythons have been known to attack and kill humans, it's unlikely one would be able to open its jaw wide enough to get past the shoulders of an adult male.