A 5-year-old Australian boy was dragged into a swimming pool by a python in Australia — and miraculously survived the terrifying attack when his grandpa choked the beast.
Beau Blake was playing in the yard of his family’s home in Byron Bay, New South Wales, Wednesday when the 10-foot-long snake emerged from the bushes in the garden and bit the boy as he was walking around the edge of the pool.
The reptile — thought to be a carpet python — tightly wrapped itself around the tot’s leg and pulled him into the water.
“It was instant. I saw a big black shadow come out of the bush and before they hit the bottom (of the pool) it had completely wrapped around his leg,” Beau’s father, Ben Blake, told the radio station 3AW.
But a tragedy was averted when the boy’s 76-year-old grandfather jumped into the pool and brought him to the surface — while his father choked the serpent until it unhinged its powerful jaws and let go of its pray.
“I am not a little lad. I had him released within 15 to 20 seconds,” Blake bragged.
The father held onto the snake for about 10 minutes before releasing it back into the garden.
Beau was later treated for puncture wounds to his leg caused by the python’s teeth.
“Once we cleaned up the blood and told him he was not going to die because it wasn’t a poisonous snake, he was actually pretty good,” the dad said.
Beau, who was described by his father as an “absolute trouper,” was kept home from school the next today to be monitored for possible signs of infection.
The child’s mother, Tesse Ferguson, wrote in a Facebook post that the family was “very shaken up but grateful all is ok.” She warned fellow parents that “the unthinkable can happen!”
Blake said his father has encountered about 10 snakes on his property over the past 36 years.
Australia is home to 15 species of pythons. These snakes are not venomous and kill their prey by coiling their bodies around it before suffocating and swallowing it.
Having gone through the terrifying ordeal that nearly resulted in his son’s death, Ben Blake spoke matter-of-factly of living in close proximity to a dizzying array of dangerous predators.
“Look, it’s where we live. It’s Australia,” he said.
