Man Captures Python—Then Gets Strangled to Death

A python strangled a man who had managed to briefly capture it near a luxury hotel on Indonesia's resort island of Bali today. The incident happened around 3am as the 15-foot-long python was slithering across a road near the Bali Hyatt hotel, said Agung Bawa, a security manager at the hotel, which is closed for renovations until 2015. The victim, Ambar Arianto Mulyo, 59, was a security guard at a nearby restaurant who had offered to help capture the snake, which had apparently been spotted several times before, Bawa said.

Mulyo managed to secure the snake's head and tail and put it on his shoulders, but the python wrapped itself around his body and strangled him, said Bawa, who was present during the attack. People watching the incident were unable or unwilling to help and called the police, who came but failed to save the man; he died of suffocation. The python escaped into nearby bushes, and police were still searching for it as they warned residents and tourists to be on alert. (More pythons stories.)