A five-year-old Australian boy survived being grabbed by a large python and dragged into a swimming pool before being rescued by his grandfather.
Beau Blake was preparing for a swim at his grandfather’s home when the three-metre snake sprang from nearby bushes and forced him underwater, the child’s father said today.
The family were relaxing yesterday at the property near Ocean Shores near Byron Bay, 460 miles north of Sydney, when the python attacked.
“According to an interview with NBN News the father said”I had just started kicking back on the lounge, just started enjoying a tin and all of a sudden it was on,”
Beau Blake suffered a bite from the non-poisonous snake
Beau was just walking around the edge and I believe the python was sort of sitting there waiting for a victim.
I just saw a big black shadow come out of the bush and before they hit the bottom, it was completely wrapped around his leg.”
“Before he even hit the bottom of the pool it was completely wrapped around the leg,” he said.
The boy’s grandfather, 76-year-old Alan Blake, immediately jumped into the swimming pool, grabbed his grandson and the snake, still entwined, and passed them up to Ben.
“I looked in and there was the thing around his legs so I just jumped straight in to grab him,” Alan said.
Ben seized the python by its neck, squeezed hard and managed to pull it off his son in about 20 seconds.
Beau was taken to a local hospital where doctors cleaned the puncture wounds left by the python.
“He’s an absolute trooper, once we cleaned up the blood and told him he wasn’t going to die because it wasn’t a poisonous snake, he was pretty good,” Ben said.
After the attack he released the python back into the bushes.