{"id":787,"date":"2014-08-23T11:10:27","date_gmt":"2014-08-23T11:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=787"},"modified":"2014-08-23T11:10:27","modified_gmt":"2014-08-23T11:10:27","slug":"chef-cooking-snake-dies-after-cobra-bites-him-20-minutes-after-head-was-cut-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=787","title":{"rendered":"Chef cooking snake dies after cobra bites him 20 minutes after head was cut off"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Snakes-head\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A chef preparing a dish from cobra flesh died when the snake’s head bit him – 20 minutes after it was cut off. Victim Peng Fan had been preparing a special dish made from the Indochinese spitting cobra, a rare delicacy in Asia where eating snakes is commonplace. But when he went to throw the serpent’s severed head into the waste bin, it bit him – injecting him with its fast acting venom. Police say Mr Peng died before he could be given life saving anti-venom in hospital. Diners who were eating in the restaurant at the time have described screams coming from the kitchen as the tragedy unfolded.<\/p>\n

Restaurant guest Lin Sun, 44, who was in the restaurant with his wife Su at the time said: “We were in the restaurant having a meal for my wife’s birthday when suddenly there was a lot of commotion.<\/p>\n

“We did not know what was happening but could hear screams coming from the kitchen.<\/p>\n

“There were calls for a doctor in the restaurant but unfortunately by the time medical assistance arrived the man had already died. After we heard that we did not continue with our meal.”<\/p>\n

A police spokesman said: “It is a highly unusual case but it appears to be just an accident. He prepared the snake himself and was just unlucky.<\/p>\n

“There was nothing that could be done to save the man. Only the anti-venom could have helped but this was not given in time. It was just a tragic accident.”<\/p>\n

The snake was being diced up to be made into snake soup, which is a delicacy in the area and a much sought after dish in high-end restaurants. China has seen a rising demand for snake products, not only in restaurants but also for use in traditional medicine.<\/p>\n

Snake expert Yang Hong-Chang – who has spent 40 years studying cobras – says all reptiles can function for up to an hour after losing body parts, or even their entire body.<\/p>\n

Mr Yang said: “It is perfectly possible that the head remained alive and bit Peng’s hand. By the time a snake has lost its head, it\u2019s effectively dead as basic body functions have ceased, but there is still some reflexive action.<\/p>\n

“It means snakes have the capability of biting and injecting venom even after the head has been severed.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A chef preparing a dish from cobra flesh died when the snake’s head bit him – 20 minutes after it was cut off. Victim Peng Fan had been preparing a special dish made from the Indochinese spitting cobra, a rare delicacy in Asia where eating snakes is commonplace. But when he went to throw the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-strange-world"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Snakes-head.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-cH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=787"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":789,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787\/revisions\/789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}