A chef preparing a dish from cobra flesh died when the snake's head bit him - 20 minutes after it was cut off, the Daily Mirror reported. 

Victim Peng Fan had been preparing a special dish made from the Indochinese spitting cobra, a rare delicacy in Asia where eating snakes is commonplace.

But when he went to throw the serpent's severed head into the waste bin, it bit him - injecting him with its fast acting venom.

Mr Peng died before he could be given life saving anti-venom in hospital.

Diners who were eating in the restaurant at the time heard screams coming from the kitchen as the tragedy unfolded.