A man out on an urban hike along the Marina Bay East Garden park connector at 1:20am on a weekday was bitten by a snake.

He then drove himself to a hospital's Accident and Emergency department while still in shock.

The incident, accompanied by photos, was posted in the Singapore Hikers Facebook group on Aug. 26.

Large snake

The hiker, Dennis Kwek, wrote that the snake that had bitten him on his right leg was a large 2m brown snake.

He described the reptile as "thick".

Kwek added that he could not whip out his phone in time to take a photo of the snake, which retreated into the bushes after biting him.

A photo showed the snake bite on Kwek's shin.

Drove himself to hospital

After he was bitten, Kwek said he dialled 995 for help.

However, he eventually walked back slowly to the Passion Wave public car park and drove himself to a hospital's A&E ward for treatment.

This was despite him being uncertain whether the snake was venomous or not at that time.

But Kwek wrote: "Thankfully not venomous."

Didn't know exactly where he was

In the comments section of the post, Kwek explained that he could not inform the 995 emergency call operator at that moment regarding his location, as he was unsure where exactly he was at that time.

Only later on Kwek realised he had his running app turned on, and he has since uploaded a screen shot of a map showing how far along the park connector he ventured, and the scenery that greeted him at that location he was bitten.

Kwek wrote that he has since alerted Gardens By The Bay about the snake bite.

Stepped on snake

The comments section of the post saw multiple commenters weighing in on the subject.

One of them asked what exactly happened that resulted in the snake bite.

Kwek responded personally and revealed that he had stepped on the snake.

Venomous snakes rare in Singapore

Another commenter admonished Kwek to edit his post to clarify that the snake did not attack him unprovoked, as this could lead to unnecessary public anxiety and aversion to snakes.

This was particularly so as Kwek had admitted to first stepping on the snake, which likely caused it to retaliate.

The comment also emphasised that there are seven species of venomous snakes in Singapore, and six of them are very uncommon and found only in good quality forests, such as in Bukit Timah or mangroves.

The commenter also highlighted that Kwek's description of the snake sounded like it could very well have been a reticulated python, which is non-venomous.

How to find out your exact location anywhere in the world

For hikers and those who enjoy taking walks even in urban Singapore, they are advised to download the what3words app.

It is an app that can pinpoint anyone's exact location anywhere on Earth using only three words, and has already been responsible for saving dozens of lives worldwide.

The developers of the app divided the entire world into 57 trillion squares, each measuring 3m by 3m.

These squares are then assigned a unique, randomly assigned three-word address.

For example, the front entrance of Plaza Singapura is assigned the words rabble.dark.swan.

Using the what3words app helps to remove any ambiguity surrounding one's whereabouts and can narrow down the location to a specific spot for help to be rendered more effectively.

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