Python Catches Thai Woman, Holds Her For Two Hours Before Freeing Her
BANGKOK — A 64-year-old woman was preparing to do the evening dishes at her home outside Bangkok when she felt a sharp pain in her thigh and looked down to see a huge python grabbing her.
“I was going to draw water and when I sat down, it bit me immediately,” Arom Arunroj told Thai newspaper Thairath. “When I looked, I saw the snake coiling around me.”
The four- to five-metre-long (13- to 16-foot-long) python coiled around her torso, pressing her against her kitchen floor.
“I grabbed him by the head, but he wouldn’t let go,” she said. “He just kept tightening.”
Pythons are non-venomous constrictors, which kill their prey by gradually taking away their breath.
Leaning against her kitchen door, she screamed for help, but it was only when a neighbor happened to walk by about an hour and a half later and heard her screams that the authorities were called.
Police officer Anusorn Wongmalee, who responded Thursday, told The Associated Press that when he arrived, the woman was still leaning against her door, looking exhausted and pale, with the snake wrapped around her.
Police and animal control officers used a crowbar to hit the snake in the head until it let go and slithered away before it could be captured.
In total, Arom spent about two hours Tuesday evening in the python’s clutches before being released.
She was treated for several bites, but otherwise appeared unharmed in videos of her speaking to Thai media shortly after the incident.
Snake encounters are not uncommon in Thailand. Last year, 26 people were killed by venomous snake bites, according to government statistics. A total of 12,000 people were treated for bites from snakes and other venomous animals in 2023.
The reticulated python is the largest snake found in Thailand. Its size typically ranges from 1.5 to 6.5 meters (5 to 21 feet) and it weighs up to about 75 kilograms (165 pounds). Some have been found to be up to 10 meters (33 feet) long and weigh 130 kilograms (287 pounds).
Small pythons feed on small mammals such as rats, but larger snakes feed on pigs, deer, and even domestic dogs and cats. Attacks on humans are not common, although they do occur occasionally.
