A woman was rescued after being strangled by a python for more than two hours in Samut Prakan, Thailand, according to CNN, The Guardian and Associated Press.
Arom Arunroj, 64, was washing dishes at her home about 21 miles south of Bangkok on the evening of Tuesday, September 17, when she noticed several bites on her leg. “The snake suddenly jumped forward and bit me,” she told CNN.
“The moment I sat down to scoop up some water, the snake bit me,” Arunroj told Thai newspaper Thairath, according to the Associated Press. “I looked and saw the snake wrapped around me.”
“I grabbed him by the head and he wouldn’t let go,” she said. “He just squeezed me.”
The python emerged, wrapped itself around Arunroj and fell to the ground. He was unable to free himself from the snake’s grip around his waist and remained trapped on the floor of the small, dark room for two hours.
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Arunroge cried out for help but no help immediately arrived. Eventually, a neighbour heard her and called the authorities for help, according to The Guardian.
Upon arrival, police and animal control kicked down the door and poked and hit the snake with a crowbar to get it away from Arunroghi, freeing her from its grasp. Police and animal control freed her within 30 minutes of arriving and later sent her to the hospital for treatment of multiple bite wounds.
“We were shocked to see the woman tied to the floor with a python wrapped around her body,” Inspector Anusorn Wongmaree of Samut Prakan’s Phra Samut Chedi Police Station told CNN. “The snake was really big.”
“Her skin was pale so she might have been strangled for a while,” Ms Wongmalee told the Guardian, adding: “It was a python. A big python. There were bite marks on her legs but I thought there might be something else there too.”
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The python was reportedly 13 feet long and weighed more than 45 pounds. Authorities confirmed the snake escaped after the attack.
Pythons are not venomous, but they can kill a person by choking them – the snake wraps itself around its victim to restrict blood flow and then swallows it whole.
According to Thai National Parks, there are 250 species of snakes in Thailand, including three: the reticulated python, the Burmese python and the blood python.
Thailand is home to a large number of snakes, and according to CNN, 12,000 people were treated for venomous snake or animal bites in the country in 2023, 26 of whom were medically treated, according to the Thai National Health Safety Agency.