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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2009
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Python Attack Survivor: 'I Had to Bite It'

Python dragged Kenyan man up a tree

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(Newser) – 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.

An African rock python on a dirt road pictured in the Kruger National Park on December 7, 2007, in Mpumalanga, South Africa.
An African rock python on a dirt road pictured in the Kruger National Park on December 7, 2007, in Mpumalanga, South Africa.   (Getty Images)
"We are still seriously looking for the snake. We want to arrest the snake because any one of us could fall a victim," says the superintendent of police in the district where it attacked.   (©spisharam)
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The snake had coiled his hands and was trying to swallow him but he struggled very hard. The officers and villagers managed to rescue him and he was freed. - Peter Katam, superintendent of police in Malindi district of Kenya

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4 comments
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kokuaguy
Apr 15, 09 12:37 PM CDT
And these things are now infesting the Florida Keys? Reply
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anchower
Apr 15, 09 1:07 PM CDT
The headline makes it seem like the python attacked because the guy bit it. Reply
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riffran
Apr 16, 09 5:45 AM CDT
HOLY SH**!........Po fella..glad he was OK....and yes,there have been pythons loosed and living in the everglades...not sure if its the "monster " variety, (like the rock pythons...damn they get huge) but there have been some captured that were pretty damn big Reply
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radnip
Apr 17, 09 2:17 PM CDT
Man, Kenyans have too much food. We used to kill and eat snakes. After all, they are a good way of getting some protein when you can't afford it. Not only do they feed you; that makes it safer for the farming. Reply
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