A French backpacker apparently died of a snakebite on the Australian east coast. The 25-year-old man was found unconscious at his accommodation in the town of Nullawil, about 300 kilometers northwest of Melbourne. Broadcaster 9News reported this on Wednesday based on eyewitnesses.
Small puncture wounds from a bite were discovered on his foot, said Wade Humphreys, whose company the Frenchman was working for on a working holiday visa. It is probably an eastern brown snake.
The venomous brown snakes, also called Australian false cobras, are particularly dangerous because their bite is usually painless. “He may not have even noticed he was bitten,” said Humphreys, who called it “a tragedy.”
Friends tried to revive the young man for an hour. He was then flown to a Melbourne hospital in a critical condition, where he died after suffering cardiac arrest.
According to statistics, on average only one or two people die each year in Australia as a result of a snakebite.
Tags: French backpacker killed snake Australia
