A snake bite kills hockey player in Australia as the field hockey player was bit on his hand, but didn't think it was a poisonous snake. As the snake-bitten hokey player went for a run, he collapsed from the venom.

Fairfax newspapers reported Friday that 26-year-old Karl Berry was cleaning up at Marrara Hockey Centre in Darwin on Tuesday when he picked up a snake. He thought it was a nonvenomous python, threw it in the bushes and went for a run, but he collapsed after the run; the snake bite killed the hockey player.

Before collapsing after a 1.2-mile training run, he did not realize the bite was poisonous. The hockey player reportedly didn't think the small snake bite could harm him, but the bite ended up killing the hockey player. 

St. John's Ambulance operations manager Craig Garraway told reporters that Berry was conscious when paramedics arrived, but took up to 15 minutes to mention the bite. He died on Wednesday. Garraway said the run pumped the venom around his system faster.

"I think he thought it was a python," Garraway said.

Garraway said that when paramedics looked at the bite mark, it was more consistent with a bite from a venomous species, possibly a brown snake.

"After some discussion and investigation we became aware he had picked up a snake off the hockey field and it had actually bitten him on the finger."

Brown snakes are easily alarmed and will bite if handled or threatened, according to Garraway. If bitten, symptoms can include abdominal pain, breathing difficulties, convulsions and renal failure, which lead to death.

Berry was the captain of the Commerce-Pints field hockey team in Australia.

Australia is home to 20 of the world's 25 most venomous snakes, and there are 3,000 snake bite cases in Australia every year. Of those 3,000 bites, two die, on average, from the bite.