A singer has tragically died right on the stage after she was bitten by the same snake she was performing with.
Irma Bule
Irma Bule, a pop star renowned in Indonesia kept on singing for an astonishing 45 minutes after she was bitten mid-performance by the cobra before she collapsed and died onstage.
Irma was known for wearing snakes during her acts, but the king cobra which she danced with on Sunday had not been defanged.
The tragic 29-year-old was performing in a village in Karawang, West Java, in her native Indonesia when the incident happened.
After her first song, she accidentally stood on the cobra, called Rianti. The reptile then bit her on the leg, injecting venom into her bloodstream. A video appears to have captured the moment.
"The accident happened in the middle of the second song when Irma stepped on the snake' s tail," audience member Ferlando Octavion Auzura, told local media.
"The snake then bit Irma on her thigh,''
Although the star kept her show going - reportedly turning down an antidote from the snake handler - after 45 minutes witnesses said she started vomiting.
After a number of seizures, she collapsed. Irma was then taken to hospital , but passed away soon after.
Bule’s musical genre is known as dangdut and uses props onstage. She has previously reportedly danced with pythons and boa constrictors as part of her act.
Police said they are investigating the incident and gathering information from audiences.
An expert from Tulala Snake Research Centre, Lydia Apririasari, told Rappler that dancing with snakes is very common in Indonesia, especially in villages.
Below is a video showing the moment the singer was bitten by the cobra and had to be attended to.