News Digest

The force was with him: Star Wars costume prevents deadly snake bite

A Star Wars fan has been saved from a venomous snake bite by his stormtrooper outfit. Scott Loxley is raising money for charity by walking around Australia disguised as a desert stormtrooper, or sandtrooper, from the classic space opera film series. The 47-year-old said the suit armour protected him when he was attacked by a King Brown, or Mulga, snake near Yalboroo in the northern area of Queensland.

So all those people that rag on the old stormtroopers, you know ‘the armour doesn’t do this, it doesn’t do that’, it stopped the snake bite and probably saved my life today.

"Stormtrooper" Scott Loxley

He said he thought the snake was dead but that the highly venomous reptile tried to sink its teeth into his shins, only to be stopped short by the plastic armour of his costume. “Turns out he wasn’t dead,” he said. ”He lunged at me and bit me. But the good news is, the (stormtrooper) armour, he bit me in the shin and the armour actually protected me and stopped the bite. I could feel the teeth on the plastic scraping but the armour actually stopped something.”