Thai Woman, 64, Rescued After Being In Python's Grip For 2 Hours

A 64-year-old woman in Thailand has been rescued by police after being strangled by a huge python for two hours. According to CBS News, the incident took place on Tuesday. The woman, identified as Arom, was doing the dishes at her home outside Bangkok when she felt a sharp pain in her thigh and looked down to see a 13-to16 foot python taking hold of her. "I was about to scoop some water and when I sat down it bit me immediately. When I looked I saw the snake wrapping around me," she said. 

The giant python coiled itself around the 64-year-old's torso, squeezing her down on the flood of her kitchen, the outlet reported. The woman struggled to free herself from the snake's tightening coils for two hours without success, the cops said.

"I grabbed it by the head, but it wouldn't release me," she said. "It only tightened."

The woman cried out for help, but no one answered initially. Later, one of her neighbours heard her distressed calls and sought assistance from the police. 

"We were shocked to see the lady was tied down on the floor with the python wrapping around (her)," Police Major Sergeant Anusorn Wongmalee of the Phra Samut Chedi Police Station in Samut Prakan, a province south of Bangkok, told CNN. "The snake was really big."

Police and animal control officers used a crowbar to hit the snake on the head until it released its grip and slithered away before it could be captured. In all, Ms Arom spent about two hours in the clutches of the python before being freed. She was later treated for several bites, according to the police. 

The snake escaped afterwards, cops said, adding: "We couldn't catch it."

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Notably, pythons are non-venomous constrictors, which kill their prey by gradually squeezing the breath out of it. Thailand is home to 250 snake species, including three varieties of pythons - the reticulated, Burmese and Blood - according to Thai National Parks.

According to Thailand's National Health Security Office, some 12,000 people were treated for venomous snake and animal bites in the country last year. Twenty-six people died from snake bites during that period, official figures show.

Deaths by large constrictors are considered rare, but several people in Indonesia have also been killed by pythons in recent years. Last month, a woman was found dead inside the belly of a snake after it swallowed her whole in Siteba village, in South Sulawesi province. In June a woman was found dead inside the belly of a reticulated python in another district of South Sulawesi.