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A four-metre-long (13ft) python coiled around a 64-year-old woman in Thailand for about two hours in her home before help arrived.
The snake bit her multiple times and wrapped itself around her, squeezing tighter as Arom Arunroj struggled to free herself, according to Thai media reports.
Despite her attempts to grab the snake’s head, it didn’t let go, Ms Arunroj said.
She was washing up after dinner around 8.30pm local time in her home in Samut Prakan, a province south of Bangkok, when she first felt the bite.
“I looked at it and it was a snake,” she was quoted as saying by Koha News. Ms Arunroj said that she tried to fight the snake and called for help, but no one heard her.
She tried to grab the snake’s head in an attempt to free herself, but, she said, “it kept strangling me”.
After about two hours, a neighbour heard her faint cries and called for help.
“She had probably been strangled for a while because her skin was pale,” Sgt Maj Anusorn Wongmali Anusorn said.
“It was a python, a big one. I saw a bite mark on her leg but knew there might be some elsewhere too.”
The snake reportedly weighed around 20kg.
Police were assisted by members of the She Poh Tek Tung Foundation, a rescue organisation, and Ms Arunroj was transported to the hospital for treatment.
Khaosod English reported that everyone was shocked to find the woman with a giant python wrapped tightly around her midsection.
It took over 30 minutes of intense effort to free her from the snake’s grip. Once the python was pulled off, it swiftly slithered into a nearby forest, escaping capture as rescuers prioritised giving Ms Arunroj first aid and rushing her to the hospital.
“I tried calling out to my neighbours and anyone nearby, but no one heard me. I thought I wouldn’t survive and would surely become the snake’s meal. In a final attempt, I shouted as loud as I could until someone passing by heard me and quickly called the police and rescue unit for help. I’ve never experienced anything like this in my life,” Ms Arunroj told Khaosod English.
While pythons are not venomous, their bite can lead to infection. They kill their prey by coiling around and suffocating it. These massive snakes can grow over 10m long.
Ms Arunroj is a housekeeper at a children’s hospital in Bangkok and has been renting a room in Samut Prakan where the incident occurred. Her husband died in November last year and she has been living alone since then.
Behind her room is a bamboo forest with a pond.
About 12,000 people in Thailand received treatment for venomous snake and animal bites in 2023, as reported by the national health security office. Government data shows at least 26 people died from snake bites through the year.
Last month, a python bit a man’s testicle as he was sitting on the toilet.
He reportedly grabbed the snake to stop it from escaping into his home and tried to pull it out, hitting its head with his hand and a toilet brush, until a neighbour came to help.
