Indonesian pop singer Irma Bule died on April 3 after she was bitten by a king cobra while performing on stage.
Bule, 29, was performing on stage in a village of Karawang in West Java, Indonesia, when she accidentally stepped on one of the snakes she used in her act.
“The accident happened in the middle of the second song when Irma stepped on the snake’s tail,” audience member Ferlando Octavion Auzura, told local media.
“The snake then bit Irma on her thigh.'’
The 29-year-old singer, who was a performer of Dangdut, a traditional folk music genre in Indonesia, refused to get treatment.
A snake handler pulled the animal away and offered Bule antidote, but she declined and continued with her performance.
Not long afterwards, she started vomiting and had several seizures.
Bule was then rushed to the hospital but it was already too late: she died 45 minutes later.
Bule’s body will now undergo an autopsy.
Her family plans to sue both the snake handler as well as the manager of the event for not putting a stop to the performance immediately, reported the Daily mail.
The pop star was known for wearing snakes during her acts, such as pythons and boa constrictors, reported Reptiles Magazine.
The king cobra had not been defanged, although apparently Bule thought it was.
King cobras can grow up to 18 feet and are found in India, Southeast Asia, and southern China.
They are also one of the deadliest animals on the planet—with a single bite they can kill an elephant.
Bule is survived by her husband, who works at a factory, and her three young children: Flowers, 8, Rose, 6, and Kiran, 4.
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