A chef preparing a dish made from cobra flesh died after the snake bit his hand – 20 minutes after he had severed it from its body.

Peng Fan from Foshan, Guangdong province, southern China, had been preparing a special dish made from Indochinese spitting cobra, a rare delicacy.

It was as he went to chuck the cobra’s head in the bin that it bit him, injecting Mr Peng with its flesh-killing, neurotoxic venom.

The snake was being diced up to be made into snake soup, which is a delicacy in Guangdong and a much sought after dish in the province’s high-end restaurants.

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.

Victims of the Indochinese spitting cobra generally asphyxiate after the neurotoxin paralyses their respiratory system.