An Indonesian woman who was reportedly missing was found dead in the stomach of a snake in central Indonesia after being swallowed whole by the snake, a local official told news agency AFP on Saturday.

Farida, 45, was found inside a reticulated python on Friday by her husband and residents of Kalemang village in South Sulawesi province.

The python was about 5 metres (16 ft) long.

She went missing on Thursday night and did not return home, village head Suardi Rossi told AFP, prompting a search operation.

Suardi said her husband “found her belongings, which made him suspicious. The villagers then searched the area. They soon spotted a python with a big belly.”

“They agreed to cut open the python’s belly. As soon as they did so, Farida’s head immediately became visible,” he said.

She was found inside the python’s stomach, fully clothed.

Such incidents are rare, although there have been several deaths in Indonesia in recent years due to pythons swallowing the animal whole.

Last year, residents of the Tinanggeya district in southeast Sulawesi encountered an eight-metre-long python, which they killed after it strangled and devoured a farmer in the village.

In 2018, a 54-year-old woman was found dead inside a python seven metres deep in the city of Muna, southeast Sulawesi.

And last year, a farmer in West Sulawesi went missing, only to be eaten alive by a four-metre-long python on a palm oil plantation.