A six-meter python lunged from a river in Borneo and dragged a local tour guide underwater as his horrified crew tried to pull him free. The violent encounter, caught on video, shows the moment the snake coiled around the man’s torso and neck before being wrestled off by two other guides.
The victim, identified only as Heru, was leading a group through the Sebangau River on the island of Borneo when they spotted the python resting near the riverbank. Heru, an experienced snake handler, leaned from the side of the boat to grab the reptile just behind its head. Within seconds, the python snapped forward and yanked him into the water.
In the video, Heru can be seen thrashing as the python tightens its grip, forcing him beneath the surface. His crewmates leap into the river, one grabbing the snake’s head and the other its tail. The men struggle for nearly a minute before finally freeing Heru, who surfaces gasping but alive.
“It was the biggest and strongest python we’ve ever seen,” said Mohamad Alisa, who filmed the encounter. “Our principle is not to harm living creatures. Photography is purely for scientific purposes.” Alisa said the snake was later captured, photographed, and released back into the wild.
Terrifying Video Shows Python Pull Tour Guide Underwater and Wrap Around His Neck
Indonesia’s Borneo region is home to several python species, including the reticulated python—considered the world’s longest snake and one of its strongest constrictors. The species kills by wrapping around its prey and tightening until circulation stops. While pythons typically target animals like wild pigs or monkeys, human attacks have become more frequent as deforestation and development push people deeper into their habitat.
Just months earlier, villagers in Southeast Sulawesi discovered a 63-year-old farmer dead inside an 8.5-meter python after he went missing while tending to livestock. In 2022, another woman was found swallowed whole by a python of similar size in the same area.
Heru’s case ended differently, but only barely. The footage circulated widely online, drawing renewed attention to the growing overlap between human activity and Indonesia’s native wildlife. Wildlife experts have long warned that pythons in Borneo and Sulawesi are adapting to the country’s shrinking jungles by moving closer to river systems and farmland.
For Heru, the encounter was seconds away from becoming another headline. For everyone watching, it showed how little control humans actually have out there.
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