Python Attack Survivor: 'I Had to Bite It'

Python dragged Kenyan man up a tree
By Katherine Thompson,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 15, 2009 12:17 PM CDT
Python Attack Survivor: 'I Had to Bite It'
An African rock python on a dirt road pictured in the Kruger National Park on December 7, 2007, in Mpumalanga, South Africa.   (Getty Images)

A Kenyan farm worker beat the odds last weekend, surviving an attack by a 13-foot python that dragged him up a tree, the BBC reports. "I stepped on a spongy thing on the ground and suddenly my leg was entangled with the body of a huge python," Ben Nyaumbe recalled. His solution? "I had to bite it." The snake was captured but has since escaped.

"We are still seriously looking for the snake," said a local police official. "We want to arrest the snake." Nyaumbe used his cellphone to call for help during his struggle with the snake, then tried to smother it with his shirt. Police wanted to shoot the python but worried they would hit Nyaumbe. He broke free after biting the tip of the snake's tail, injuring his lip in the process.
(More pythons stories.)

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