KOTA TINGGI: Three fishermen at the Orang Asli settlement in Kampung Sungai Selanggi must have thought they had a good catch.

Yesterday, after casting their net into a disused mining pool, they felt a heavy tug and began pulling in their catch.

To their surprise, the heavy weight they were pulling in was not a bumper catch, but a 6.6m-long python.

But Ramlan Md Yusuf, 33, and 21-year-olds Adam Arof and Sanan Talib soon realised the reptile was weak and dying.

There was a huge bulge in its stomach, indicating that it had not finished digesting its latest meal, which must have been a rather large animal.

That meal, however, proved to be its last.

It is believed the python had just devoured the monitor lizard before getting trapped in the fishing net.

While waiting for the police whom they called, they realised the python had died.

District police chief Superintendent Osman Muhammad Sebot arrived at the scene and called the Civil Defence Department.

Curious about what's inside the bloated stomach, the python was cut open.

The carcass of a 2m-long Asian water monitor lizard, weighing about 30kg, was found.