5-year-old boy rescued after giant python grabbed his ankle and dragged him into pool, dad says

A pleasant afternoon swimming in the backyard of a home in New South Wales turned horrifying this week after a man said his 5-year-old son was attacked by a giant python.

Speaking to Australian radio show 3AW on Thursday, Byron Bay resident Ben Blake said his two sons swam in the family’s underground pool on Wednesday. His 5-year-old son Beau Blake had gotten out of the water and was walking along the edge of the pool next to the garden when the incident happened.

“Out of the blue what was probably a 10 foot python decided to wrap its mouth around its ankle and they both rolled into the pool and the python wrapped itself around it,” Blake said.

Blake said that he believes the python “sat there and waited for something to come”.

“And Beau was,” he said.

The next few minutes flew by. Suddenly, Blake said, he saw the snake appear, and the next thing he knew the snake was “completely wrapped around his son’s leg” and they were spinning into the pool. He later told Australia’s 9 News that the python had wrapped itself “from the bite to his knee joint.”

That’s when his 76-year-old father literally stepped in to save the day. Within seconds he was in the pool, grabbing both the boy and the snake, which were still entangled, and handing them to Ben. The father separated the two after about 15 to 20 seconds, he said, saying, “It was kind of an ordeal.”

“I just grabbed it as close to the head as I could and pushed and pulled,” Ben Blake told 9 News.

The boy was attacked just days before his sixth birthday, his father said, but was fine after his father and grandfather told him the snake was not poisonous.

“He’s an absolute trooper,” said Ben Blake.

The family are now only monitoring the bites on Beau’s ankle to make sure there is no infection.

While New South Wales and Australia as a whole are known for their creepy creatures, including pythons, Blake said this incident was outside the norm. It’s unclear what species of python attacked the boy, but according to the Backyard Buddies organization, there are 15 species of python on the continent.

“A large python like this lurking in the bushes right next to the pool – not so much,” he said of one such incident.

The family eventually released the snake shortly after attacking the child, but even after that ordeal, Blake said “the naughty thing” didn’t slither very far. In fact, he said, it “went back to the crime scene.”