A man in China avoids death by the skin of his teeth, after finding a poisonous blue-ringed octopus in his hot pot at a restaurant.
He took to Weibo to share his close call with death, posting a photo of a strange-looking octopus with bluish circles on its head, among other normal looking octopuses in a tray of ice.
He asked netizens if anyone could identify whether it was a blue-ringed octopus, which is one of the most poisonous animals in the world.
He asked, “isn’t this a blue-ringed octopus? I saw this in a hot pot restaurant, can I put this into my hot pot? This is urgent, I’ll wait online.”
He soon got a reply from a science education page after about an hour, who confirmed his suspicions and said that it was indeed a blue ringed octopus.
They told him that the toxins in the octopus are very strong and even if he cooked it, the poison won’t be neutralised.
They also added that other people have also found the same poisonous octopus accidentally mixed in with commercially sold octopuses before.
Netizens then told him to quickly inform the restaurant about his poisonous find and asked him whether he had already eaten it.
The man then assured them that thankfully he didn’t eat it and had already removed it.