Woman rescued after two hours trapped in four-metre python coil

A 64-year-old woman has been rescued after a four metre long python coiled itself around her torso on Tuesday, squeezing her down to the floor of her kitchen in Thailand.

Arom Arunroj was preparing to do her evening dishes at her home outside Bangkok when she felt a sharp pain in her thigh and looked down to see a huge python taking hold of her.

“I was about to scoop some water and when I sat down it bit me immediately,” Arunroj told Thailand’s Thairath newspaper. “When I looked I saw the snake wrapping around me.”

“I grabbed it by the head, but it wouldn’t release me,” she said. “It only tightened.”

Pythons are non-venomous constrictors which kill their prey by gradually squeezing the breath out of it.

Propped up against her kitchen door, she cried for help but it wasn’t until a neighbour happened to be walking by about an hour and a half later and heard her screams that authorities were called.

Responding police officer Anusorn Wongmalee told The Associated Press on Thursday that when he arrived the woman was still leaning against her door, looking exhausted and pale.

Police and animal control officers used a crowbar to hit the snake on the head until it released its grip and slithered away before it could be captured.

In all, Arunroj spent about two hours on Tuesday night in the clutches of the python before being freed.

She was treated for several bites but appeared to be otherwise unharmed in videos of her talking to Thai media shortly after the incident.

Encounters with snakes are not uncommon in Thailand, and last year 26 people were killed by venomous snake bites, according to government statistics.

A total of 12,000 people were treated for venomous bites by snakes and other animals 2023.