bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

additionalInfoBoxes

quizIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

A five-year-old boy has survived being bitten, constricted and knocked into a swimming pool by a python the length of a small car, with his father telling media, “Aw look, it’s where we live. It is Australia.”
Five-year-old Beau was playing by the edge of a pool in Byron Bay when a three-metre-long (10-foot) python struck from nearby vegetation, his father Ben Blake told Nine radio on Friday.
“I believe the python was sort of sitting there waiting for a victim to come along – a bird or something – and Beau was it.”
The python bit the child, plunged both into the water and coiled itself around a leg.
The boy’s 76-year-old grandfather lept to the rescue, diving into the pool and lifting the boy out – with snake still attached.
Ben Blake then prised the snake loose and tried to calm the situation.
“I’m not a little lad, I had him released within 15-20 seconds,” he told the radio station.
‘Lucky to be alive’: man stabs crocodile head with knife to escape attack
The boy, who was said to be “an absolute trooper”, is recovering well.
“Once we cleaned up the blood and told him he wasn’t going to die because it wasn’t a poisonous snake, he’s actually pretty good,” Blake said.
While pythons are not venomous, Beau is being treated to prevent the bite from becoming infected.
Describing events as “somewhat of an ordeal”, Blake added that snakes were a fact of life in and around the subtropical Byron Bay – a popular tourist town and surf mecca an eight-hour drive north of Sydney.
“It is Australia. They are about,” Blake said, adding that the snake was released and “the naughty thing” went straight back into the vegetation – “the scene of the crime.”


China’s ‘big advantage’; US debuts hypersonic missile: SCMP daily highlights

Australian state offers US$1.3 million to compensate wrongly jailed woman

US debuts Dark Eagle hypersonic missile in Australia with China in mind

A booming coffee class and zero-tariff policy drive China’s push for African bean imports

Australia

Australian boy survives after being bitten and dragged into pool by python

While pythons are not venomous, the five-year-old boy is being treated to prevent the bite from becoming infected. File photo: TNS

Missing Indonesian woman dies after being swallowed whole by 6.7m python

Reticulated pythons are the longest snakes in the world. Photo: Shutterstock

Australian man fights off crocodile by stabbing it in the head with pocket knife

The crocodile attack occurred at a remote riverbank in Australia’s far-northern Cape York Peninsula. Photo: AFP

News

Asia

Australasia


Beau, 5, was playing by the edge of a swimming pool in Byron Bay when the snake struck from nearby vegetation
The boy’s grandfather dived into the pool and lifted him out before his dad pulled the python from Beau’s leg



Beau, 5, was playing by the edge of a swimming pool in Byron Bay when the snake struck from nearby vegetation.


Offbeat

Australian boy survives after being bitten and dragged into pool by python

Beau, 5, was playing by the edge of a swimming pool in Byron Bay when the snake struck from nearby vegetation The boy’s grandfather dived into the pool and lifted him out before his dad pulled the python from Beau’s leg

Beau, 5, was playing by the edge of a swimming pool in Byron Bay when the snake struck from nearby vegetation

The boy’s grandfather dived into the pool and lifted him out before his dad pulled the python from Beau’s leg