Man seriously ill after being bitten by snake

A man is seriously ill after he was bitten three times by a snake while at an adventure park.

The 44-year-old man was at Go Ape in Dalby Forest, near Scarborough, when the adder bit him repeatedly.

An off-duty paramedic was able to give immediate assistance to the man before emergency services arrived.

An adder, not the one which bit the man (Natural England/PA)

The victim was airlifted to the the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough by Great North Air Ambulance Service.

The adder is Britain’s only venomous snake but its bite is rarely life-threatening. The last death in the UK was in 1975 when a five-year-old boy was bitten on the ankle in the Trossachs, in Scotland.

About 100 adder bites are reported in the UK each year, with most between February and October.

The snake, which grows to up to about 30 inches long, is common throughout mainland Britain.