A farm worker on a private farm on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast is recovering after a 4.5-metre Southern African rock python coiled around him and began constricting when he accidentally stepped on it while clearing alien vegetation. His colleagues rushed to help, and the snake was killed during the rescue. The worker was treated at Stanger Hospital and released the same day. Snake expert Nick Evans described the incident as highly unusual and called it a freak occurrence rather than typical python behaviour.