Nepalese snake bites man. Man bites snake to death

Mohamed Salmo Miya, 55, uses teeth to kill cobra after being enraged by reptile's audacity in biting him first, reports say

• Reuters in Kathmandu
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 23 August 2012

A cobra, of the common variety, bit the wrong man. As the snake is not among Nepal's endangered species, its killer will not be charged. Photograph: Rungroj Yongrit/EPA

A Nepalese man who was bitten by a cobra snake bit it back and killed the reptile in a tit-for-tat attack, it has been reported. The Nepali newspaper Annapurna Post said that Mohamed Salmo Miya chased the snake, which bit him while he was in his rice paddy earlier this week, caught it and bit it until it died.

"I could have killed it with a stick but bit it with my teeth instead because I was angry," Miya, 55, who lives in a village 125 miles south-east of the Nepali capital, Kathmandu, was quoted on Thursday as saying. The snake, called "goman" in Nepal, is also known as the common cobra.

A police official, Niraj Shahi, said the man, who was being treated at a village health post and was not in danger of dying, would not be charged with killing the snake because the animal was not among reptile species listed as endangered in Nepal.