Pop star dies after cobra bite during live performance

Indonesian pop singer Irma Bule died this week after being bitten by a snake used as an on-stage prop during a live performance on Sunday.

“The accident happened in the middle of the second song when Irma stepped on the snake’s tail,” audience member Ferlando Octavion Auzura said.

“The snake then bit Irma on the thigh.”

Witnesses at the gig in Karawang, West Java, said Bule did not initially seem too affected by the bite, and she apparently “refused an antidote from the snake handler,” said one local reporter.

It’s thought that Bule believed the cobra had been defanged. She was well known for using snakes during live performances – a relatively common practice in the region – and had previously appeared with  pythons and boa constrictors.

45 minutes after the bite took place, the performance was abandoned as Bule started vomiting and collapsed. She was subsequently taken to hospital, where she was later confirmed to have died.

Indonesian police are investigating the incident