Mr Boshoff said that if a snake were to eat a human, it would not be able to move before its meal was digested.

“If the incident did happen, people would have found the snake at the exact same spot where it ate its prey. The snake would not have been able to go hide somewhere and if a snake is threatened after it has eaten such a large prey, it would regurgitate it in order to be able to flee.”

Snakes are dependent on outside sources, like the sun, for heat. It would need constant heat of 32 – 36° C to digest such a sizable portion.

“Middelburg is way too cold for a snake of that size to survive,” Mr Boshoff said.

He said that snakes big enough to eat a human might exist in the Amazon or central Africa where the temperature is hot and moist, but not on home soil.

“The snake would need a lot of sun. Because that is where they get their heat from. Everybody would have seen it, if it did exist because it would be too big to hide itself. The shops are too dark and cold for it to be able to live there. It just is not physically possible.”

According to Mr Boshoff, the biggest snake in Middelburg that he is aware of, is just over four metres long. It is kept as a pet by someone. The snake is capable of devouring a small Steenbok at best, but never a human.

He estimates that for a snake to be able to eat a human, it needs to be at least eight metres long and no less than half a metre wide.

The possibility that someone is keeping a pet snake of that size was also rubbished by him.

“The cage would need to be at least six by seven metres wide with reinforced sides.”

Mr Boshoff said that although he knows the rumor is untrue, he is willing to assist in searching through all the involved shops for signs of a snake to set the shoppers’ minds at ease.