Deadly Australian snake bites man in face - twice

Jane Melville, a snake expert with Museum Victoria, said the face was an unusual place to be attacked by a snake.

SYDNEY, March 9, 2010 (AFP) - A snake-handler was bitten twice in the face by a deadly Australian brown snake Tuesday, as experts warned people to avoid the reptiles, which have emerged from hiding amid warm weather and rain.

The 38-year-old man was recovering in hospital after the eastern brown bit him on the forehead and nose at his home in Aberdeen in the Hunter Valley north of Sydney, an ambulance spokesman said.

Jane Melville, a snake expert with Museum Victoria, said the face was an unusual place to be attacked by a snake.

"There are situations where people need to handle snakes with their hands of course, but I would say it is unusual to have a snake near your face," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"Often professional snake handlers are careful and take precautions in what they're doing."

Meanwhile, a woman was in a serious but stable condition after being bitten by an unidentified snake in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney also on Tuesday.

She was the eighth person to have been bitten by a snake in Australia's most populous state of New South Wales in the past week.

"The warm weather means it's peak snake season and the bit of rain we've had brings out other animals which the snakes eat," a spokesman for Sydney's Taronga Zoo told Australian Associated Press.

"Most of the incidents occur when the snakes feel cornered. But some people do try and handle them. Our advice is to give them a wide berth where possible."