TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A Singaporean photographer Loh Lee Aik, 67, gets bitten on the thigh by a komodo dragon yesterday in the Komodo village, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).
NTT police spokesman Adj. Comr. Jules Abraham Abast said that the photographer was bitten when he took pictures of other komodo dragons.
Jules Abraham said that the victim departed from Labuan Bajo to the Komodo Island on Monday. The man spent the night at a local house in Komodo village. “The victim had planned to take pictures of komodo dragons,” he said.
The man had earlier gone on a walk around the Komodo village and seen a komodo dragon eats a lamb, which he failed to take a photograph of.
Yesterday the photographer came to the mountainous region without being accompanied by rangers or locals to take pictures of komodo dragons eating lamb carcasses. Upon taking the pictures, he was bitten by a komodo dragon nearby, causing an open wound on the thigh.
Locals took the Singaporean man to a clinic to give first aid. He was then rushed to Siloam Hospital in Labuan Bajo for intensive treatment to keep the venom from spreading.
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