An Australian toddler is recovering from a near-deadly attack in which a python wrapped itself around his body and tried to suffocate him.
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The boy's mother spoke of her terror as she saw the python coiled around the two-year-old outside her home in Port Douglas, northeast Queensland.
The woman was sitting on her porch when her youngest son moved off to chase after a ball Monday.
"Then I heard this blood curdling scream," she told the Cairns Post.
"The snake was biting his leg and was wrapped around his whole body, to his chest. It started constricting."
The woman could not pull the snake off her son, but her screams alerted neighbors who ran to help.
Queensland Health confirmed the boy sustained four bite wounds, and that he was discharged from the hospital after 24 hours.
A neighbor said it had been a long time since he had seen a snake in the area, adding "we'll be keeping a very close eye on the dog."
"A snake wouldn't be able to make the difference between a two-year-old boy and a wallaby, part of their normal prey," said Rod Gilbert, a veterinarian.