Woman, 21, dies after being bitten by a highly venomous snake she had bought online

A Chinese woman who had allegedly hoped to make a traditional snake wine has died after being bitten by a venomous serpent which she had bought online for the process of making traditional reptile wine'
 The woman, identified as 21-year-old Qiqi by media, reportedly died in hospital last Tuesday, eight days after being bitten in the finger by the many-banded krait, one of the deadliest snakes in the world. The snake then escaped from Qiqi's home onto the streets of Weinan, a city in the province of Shaanxi in north-west China. Its dead body was found at a market by police one day later.

Qiqi's mother said she planned to sue the shopping app, the seller and the courier company over the death of her eldest daughter, according to a report on Xinhua news agency.
'How could a venomous live animal as such be sold online? And how could the courier company be allowed to transport such dangerous animal?' Qiqi's mother, known by her surname Qi, said in the Xinhua report, which cited Chengdu Business Daily.
Qiqi had reportedly bought the snake on Zhuanzhuan, an e-commerce platform backed by Chinese internet heavyweight Tencent.
She was described by Ms Qi as an animal-loving person and at one point had wanted to open her own pet store.   It is said that she had ordered the many-banded krait from a seller in the province of Guangdong in southern China, where the highly venomous reptile is endemic.
The snake had been delivered by a local courier company. The driver, who delivered the parcel to Qiqi on July 3, told Chengdu Business Daily that he did not know what was in the box, nor did the box have any warning sign. It is believed that Qiqi had planned to use the snake to make a traditional medicinal wine.
Ms Qi told Chengdu Business Daily that when she checked her late daughter's phone, she found that the seller had warned her daughter that the snake was highly poisonous, but Qiqi claimed that she would use it to make wine.
The so-called snake wine is typically made by infusing whole snakes in alcohol, with the resulting beverage said to have an invigorating effect. According to her mother's accounts, Qiqi was bitten on the index finger of her left hand at around 6pm on July 9. She was taken to Weinan No. 3 Hospital by her mother after being given first aid at home.
It is said that the doctors initially gave Qiqi a normal type of antivenom - not knowing that she had been bitten by the many-banded krait - but Qiqi's condition didn't improve. After Qiqi's family informed them about the species of the snake, the doctors had to arrange the correct type of serum from Shanghai before giving it to Qiqi on the night of July 10.
The report said that Qiqi passed away on July 19 - 'a few days' after she had been pronounced brain dead.  Ms Qi claimed that at first she didn't realise Qiqi had been bitten by a highly venomous snake because there was only one 'red spot' her finger. She said had she known the seriousness of the bite, she would have taken actions differently. According to the local forestry police, the reptile managed to escape after biting Qiqi, and it was found dead at a farmers' market near the woman's home one day later.
Online platforms are banned from trading in wildlife and administrators quickly take down such postings. But customers can turn to smaller platforms like Zhuanzhuan with less oversight.
E-commerce has boomed in China, led by major player like Alibaba's Taobao platform which handle billions of dollars in orders for everything from everyday items to the bizarre.
Ms Qi acknowledged the responsibility Qiqi held for her own death, but she claimed that the shopping app, seller and the courier firm should bear partial responsibility too.
She said: 'Because the shopping platform lacks proper management, the seller would have a way to sell and my daughter would have a way to buy.
'If the platform had prevented venomous snakes, such as the many banded krait, from being sold, then things like this wouldn't have happened. '
She also argued that the courier company should have checked all parcels and refused to send those that are banned by the Chinese authorities. Ms Qi said she planned to sue all of the three parties to seek justice for her daughter's death.