Five-year-old Australian survives python attack

A five-year-old Australian boy survived after being bitten, crushed and dragged into a swimming pool by a car long python, his father told reporters on Friday.

Little Beau was playing in a swimming pool in Byron Bay (East) when a three-metre python attacked him from nearby vegetation, his father Ben Blake told Nine Radio. “I believe the python is expecting a victim, a bird or something, and that’s pew.”

The python bit the child, knocked it into the water with itself, and wrapped itself around one leg. The boy’s 76-year-old grandfather came to the rescue, diving into the pool to pull him out of the water, the snake still coiled up. Ben Blake then tried to calm the situation by untying the python. “I’m not a small boy, I’ve released in 15 to 20 seconds.

The boy, who is now considered a “true soldier”, is recovering well. “Once we cleaned the blood, he wasn’t a poisonous snake because he wasn’t going to die, he was very good,” his father said. Although pythons are not venomous, a five-year-old child is treated to prevent their bite from becoming infected.

Ben Blake, who described the events as ‘some kind of experiment’, said it was true that the snakes were living in the popular tourist town and surfing mecca of Byron Bay, an eight-hour drive north of Sydney. “This is Australia. They are everywhere”, he underlined, noting that the snake was released and the “bad thing” returned directly to the plants, “the scene of the crime”.