A Thai man who fought off a 3m python that bit his penis while he was squatting on the toilet is recovering, hospital staff said yesterday.
Atthaporn Boonmakchuay was admitted after surviving a nightmare encounter with a python hiding in the toilet plumbing at his home in Chachoengsao Province, east of Bangkok.
“He can urinate as normal and his pain from the wound has reduced,” said Rungnapa Sehawong, a supervisor at the local Chularat 11 hospital.
Photo: AP
The 38-year-old was being treated with antibiotics and would likely be released in a few days, she added.
In an interview from his hospital bedside after the incident on Wednesday, a smiling Atthaporn told local TV channels the toilet appeared empty when he peaked in before taking a squat.
“But after a while [the python] rose from the toilet bowl and bit me,” he said, explaining how he grabbed the python behind the head to prevent it from taking him down. “At first I thought my penis was gone and already torn apart, because it was really very strong,” he added.
However, he managed to pry open the python’s jaws, after which his wife and neighbor rushed to the blood-splattered scene to cover the python’s head with a plastic bag.
A rescue team later took a hammer to the toilet to free the python and release it into the wild, local media reported.
While the toilet was damaged in the process, it gave Atthaporn’s wife reason to make a new purchase: a shiny modern flush toilet.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia