Thai woman eats a whole bat in bowl of soup

A YouTuber is facing five years in jail after recording a video of herself eating a whole bat in a bowl of soup.

Phonchanok Srisunaklua uploaded the stomach-churning one-minute 40-second clip to her YouTube channel where the dead animals are seen floating in soup with cherry tomatoes.

Describing the bats as ‘delicious’ and comparing them to ‘eating raw meat’ she is then seen ripping the animals apart and dipping them in a spicy sauce called Nim Jam.

At one point the footage shows her holding up a whole bat to the camera and declaring ‘it has teeth’ before beginning to crunch on the bones and saying ‘the bones are soft’.

The video was quickly flooded with complaints by outraged viewers alarmed at the health implications.

According to some experts, bats are said to carry over 10,000 viruses that could be transmitted to humans and start another pandemic.

Now the YouTuber, who is also a teacher, has now been arrested for ‘possession of protected wildlife carcasses’ and ‘crimes violating the Computer Crimes Act (2007)’.

Initially denying the charges, the woman has since posted another video apologising to ‘society, doctors, journalists, colleagues, family, and friends.’

She faces up to five years in prison, or a 500,000 baht (almost £12,000) fine.

But she is not alone in eating and trading bats in the region.