Bitten by cobra, pop star Irma Bule keeps singing for 45 mins; dies onstage

Karawang, Apr 7: In a tragic incident, a pop star died onstage as she kept on singing for around 45 minutes despite being bitten by a cobra. Irma Bule, who was bitten mid-performance by a cobra, 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, reports Coconuts. 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.

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. King cobras are is the world's longest venomous snake, reaching more than 5m long. 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. She explained that the length of time it took for the toxin to kill the singer was related to her bite, which was some distance from the heart. "The cobra can kill an adult elephant and consume up to 1000 kg in 2 hours, let alone a singer who maybe weighs less than 60 kgs," she added.