Tag Archives: Venom

Chef in China killed by decapitated cobra

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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.

five-head-cobra-3Peng 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.

‘Scorpion king’ back after bananas bite

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Daniel Amey, 30, thought he had scratched himself until he noticed his finger was swelling up.

The Telegraph reported yesterday he was rushed to hospital where doctors discovered part of a scorpion’s tail in his finger.

Mr Amey (right, photo from telegraph.uk.com), who works at The Food Company said,

"I put my hand in the box and thought I had cut it but by the time I was carrying the bananas, my finger had swollen up to twice its size and it felt like it was burning. The doctor was ex-Army and he knew straight away that it was a scorpion as there was a single impact wound from the sting. He told me that if it had been the other kind of scorpion from Africa, I would have been dead within 15 minutes.”

The greengrocer returned to work the same day but says he will be more cautious when unpacking bananas.