A woman from eastern Zimbabwe says she was kidnapped, dragged into a bushy area and about to be killed when a snake bit one of her attackers, a newspaper is reporting.
Tarisai Musandidaro, 29, has told police that the confusion caused by the snake bite allowed her to wrestle free from her kidnappers and run away, the Manica Post reported.
Police spokesperson Tavhiringwa Kakohwa says the woman accepted a lift in a car on the road to Masvingo. But then the driver and his companions refused to let her out.
“They [the car’s occupants] stopped at a bushy area and disembarked from the vehicle. The kidnappers dragged the woman into the bush,” the police spokesperson was quoted as saying. When one of the attackers was bitten, the others rushed to see what was happening and Musandidaro was able to escape, he said.
Police have not been able to confirm that the bite came from a snake. But the Manica Post says others involved in the case are sure it was.
Like other areas of Zimbabwe, the Masvingo area has its share of snakes, some more deadly than others.
In 2014, villagers ransacked a hut in Gono village in Masvingo province to find a poisonous black mamba that had bitten the hut’s owner. The owner of the hut died but not before the snake had been killed.
