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Photo: Pichi Chuang/ REUTERS
It is slowly getting much warmer on the Australian east coast.
A family in Byron Bay, in northern New South Wales, wanted to cool off in their backyard swimming pool when the afternoon took a dramatic turn.
A python attacked a boy and dragged him into the pool.
The snake struck "out of the blue" when little Beau was playing with his brother at the edge of the pool, the broadcaster 9News quoted the father as saying on Friday.
The python grabbed the boy's ankle "and then they both rolled into the pool."
The father explained that he suddenly saw a large shadow coming out of a bush, and then everything happened very quickly: in no time at all the animal wrapped itself around the boy's leg.
Beau's 76-year-old grandfather promptly jumped in and retrieved the boy from the pool before the father was able to free his son from the constrictor's grip.
The little one suffered a minor bite wound on his ankle, but was otherwise fine.
Pythons are non-venomous, but bite wounds should be treated for possible infection.
Little Beau is already on the mend again.
'We wiped away the blood and told him he wasn't going to die because it wasn't a venomous snake.
After that he was actually quite well,” says the father.
But he will be absent from school for a few days.
The snake didn't want to leave at all
Pythons are common in the attack area, but despite their size, they are generally considered to be fairly harmless.
Attacks on humans are the absolute exception and usually the result of provocation or oversight.
That may have been the case at Byron Bay as well.
"I think the python waited for a victim, a bird or something, and then chose Beau," the father said.
The family released the python in the undergrowth - but she didn't want to leave.
"The naughty thing came back to the scene of the crime," said the father.
But he also said: »That's the way it is here.
This is Australia, they live here."
Australia is known for its diverse and sometimes dangerous wildlife.
Compared to traffic accidents or accidents in the home, however, deaths from animal attacks are rather rare.
jok/dpa
