A man died in Australia after being bitten by one of the world’s most venomous snakes – a rare fatality despite the country being home to the planet’s 10 deadliest species.
Andrew Vaughan’s body was found by a search party after he went missing while checking power lines in dense bush near Yeppoon, 700 kilometres north of Brisbane.
An autopsy determined that the 57-year-old died from a taipan bite, his employer Ergon Energy said.
Vaughan became separated from colleagues at a remote site and the alarm was raised when he did not respond to radio and phone contact.
“Andrew was working with another workmate and a contract backhoe operator clearing a track to get access to a pole for maintenance work to be carried out at a later time,” Ergon executive Peter Billing told ABC radio.
“At some stage during those activities Andrew was bitten by the snake.”
According to an internal e-mail from Billing to Ergon staff, Vaughan appeared to have died almost instantly and was unable to be revived when a search party of police, emergency workers and colleagues found him three hours later.