ATTACK BY SNAKE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22860, 15 October 1937, Page 8

ATTACK BY SNAKE

JUNGLE HAZARDS INCIDENT DURING FILMING ARM CLAMPED BY JAWS EXPERT IN HOSPITAL [from our own correspondent] SINGAPORE, Oct. 1 Striking swiftly through the window 'of a make-believe railway cariage, a huge python attacked Mr. Zoltan Kegl, sound expert, with a film company, during the filming of a scene on Singapore Island. The reptile clamped its jaws on to its victim's forearm and coiled itself •round it. Seeing the monster's ugly head flash through the window outside which he was standing, Mr. Kegl had instinctively raised his arm to protect his face. t Brave work in freeing Mr. Kegl from the python was done by Ah Hoe, a Chinese, who has a part in the film, and M.'r. Herbert de Souza, Singapore animal dealer, who also plays in the picture. They both seized the python and became entangled in its coils as well. Then 15 coolies came to the rescue and, using a knife judiciously, separated the reptile from its victims.' Mr. Kegl suffered a wound in the arm and is in the General Hospital. He lost a considerable amount of blood before a tourniquet cotdd bo applied. \ Ke was given an anti-tetanus serum. The company was filming a scene of the Malayan jungle when cinema makebelieve suddenly assumed deadly reality. The film deals with the adventures of a British explorer, played by the New Zealand'actor Colin Tapley, in the jungles of Malaya. The scene is one ' which takes place on an express train from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of the Federated Malay States. As the train rounds a curve the python box is thrown to the floor and the reptile escapes. Everything went according to script. The box fell and the snake escaped. It began sinuously to move along the floor of the carriage. Then suddenly it struck through a window and attacked Mr. Kegl.. "It all happened so suddenly, I had only time to raise my right arm to protect my face," said Mr. Kegl. "I owe a lot to those who freed me of the reptile. It is fortunate for me that pythons are not venomous." I