A woman walker grappled with a 4.5-metre Burmese python to save her pet dog from being crushed in the second such attack by a giant snake in 14 months.
Catherine Leonard, 41, kicked and punched the snake after it wrapped itself around her 20kg pet dog Poppy on a walking trail close to the entrance to Sai Kung Country Park.
The attack took place near the spot where a 22kg husky was crushed to death despite its owner's attempts to free it in July of last year.
Ms Leonard, a co-ordinator of amateur athletic races, said she feared young children could be at risk unless the python was caught.
She was walking Poppy and two other dogs on a trail just off the Pak Tam Chung family walk last Sunday when the python struck at Poppy.
It bit Poppy and coiled itself around her. Ms Leonard, on hearing a yelping that was 'like a scream', dashed to free the four-year-old dog, kicking and grappling with the snake as one of her other dogs barked at the attacker.
'I'm not sure exactly what I did but I kicked it and I tried to pull Poppy free. The snake was twisted around her, that was the problem,' she said. 'Somehow Poppy managed to get away and the python slithered away. It was all over in about a minute.