Charlie Smith
A MAN has died after being bitten by his Asian viper in southern Spain.
The unnamed 27-year-old from Algeciras, who kept 25 snakes at his home, was pronounced dead yesterday.
It comes after he sustained the bite on Thursday at around 8pm, after which he immediately informed the Policia Local.
He was then rushed from his home in the La Granja neighborhood to the Punta Europa Hospital in Algeciras, where he was placed in the Intensive Care Unit.
Doctors treated him with up to five different antidotes, which had been sent from Sevilla.
However the various antivenins did not take effect, with the man’s condition worsening until he died on Friday morning.
Other antidotes had been ordered from Madrid, although it is not clear if they arrived.
Seprona, the Guardia Civil’s environmental wing, is understood to be transferring the man’s snakes to a local zoo.
It is unclear how he was bitten by the serpent.
Despite numerous reports of an ‘Asian viper’ it is unclear exactly what type of ‘viper’ the man kept.
Vipers have venom-injecting fangs, which they use when hunting to ‘envenomate’ their prey.
They eat small animals and have an upper jaw made of moveable bones.
Depending on the type, vipers can range in size from 10 inches up to 10 feet.
This latest incident comes after police confiscated a boa constrictor further along the coast last year.
Its 35-year-old Slovakian owner was charging tourists €5 for a picture with the serpent on Malaga’s Malagueta beach.
