Peng Fan, a chef, was making snake soup. The main ingredient in the soup was the Indochinese spitting cobra – a venomous snake. Fan had already chopped the snake’s head off, and it had been separated from the body for about twenty minutes. When Fan went to discard the head – it bit him.
The fast-acting venom started to work. Fan died before anyone could get anti-venom to him. A police spokesman said that the incident to very unusual, but does appear to have been an accident.
The only thing that could have saved Fan’s life was the anti-venom. There were customers at the restaurant the day Fan died. Most of them did not finish their meals once they learned what had happened.