Woman Freed After Being Strangled by Python for 2 Hours: 'I Saw the Snake Wrapping Around Me'

Mar. 15, 2025

Stock image of a reticulated python.Photo:Getty

Getty

In the evening of Tuesday, Sept. 17, Arom Arunroj, 64, felt several bites on her leg when she was doing dishes at her home, which is located roughly 21 miles south of Bangkok. “The snake just shot forward and bit me,” she said, per CNN.

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

The python emerged and wrapped itself around Arunroj until she fell to the ground. She was unable to free herself from the snake’s tightening grip around her waist. She remained trapped in the animal’s grasp for two hours on the floor of a tiny dark room.

Stock image of an African rock python.Getty

Arunroj shouted for help but wasn’t immediately met with assistance. Eventually one of her neighbors heard her and called authorities for help, perThe Guardian.

Upon arrival, police and animal control kicked down her door, prodded and hit the snake with a crowbar to move it away from Arunroj and release her from its grip. She was freed within 30 minutes of their arrival, and authorities then sent her to the hospital to be treated for several bites.

“We were shocked to see the lady was tied down on the floor with the python wrapping around [her],” Police Major Sergeant Anusorn Wongmalee of the Phra Samut Chedi Police Station in Samut Prakan said, per CNN. “The snake was really big.”

“She had probably been strangled for a while, because her skin was pale,” Wongmalee said, perThe Guardian, adding, “It was a python, a big one. I saw a bite mark on her leg but [knew] there might be some elsewhere too.”

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According toThai National Parks, there are 250 snake species in Thailand, three of which are types of pythons: the Reticulated, Burmese and Blood.

Given the large number of snakes in the country, 12,000 people were treated for venomous snake and animal bites in the country in 2023, and 26 of those people, according to Thailand’s National Health Security office, per CNN.

source: people.com