Giant Python swallows child in South Africa

Jet, Dec 16, 2002

A 20-foot-long African rock python swallowed a 10-year-old boy recently near Durbin, South Africa, the first recorded human-eating incident for its species, the London Sunday Telegraph reported.

The boy was picking mangoes in an orchard near the township of Lamontville when the python, which is non-venomous, trapped him and squeezed him to death before consuming him whole. Other children present said they hid in mango trees for three hours, too frightened to flee. Police and snake specialists found no trace of the boy, or his clothing, except a trail of flattened grass leading to a nearby stream, which the snake probably used to get away and digest its prey, experts said.

The attack prompted widespread panic among the township's 50,000 residents, who were searching for the snake at JET press time. Since African rock pythons are a protected species in South Africa, residents have been told that if they find the snake they should not kill it, but call in the experts.

Khaye Buthelezi, 11, who watched the attack, said his companion had been gathering fallen fruit when he was seized by the snake.

"The snake quickly wrapped itself around his body, pinning his arms to his side. He didn't cry or scream and neither did the rest of us--we didn't want the snake to come and take us as well.

"The snake squeezed tighter and tighter around him until his eyes closed and his head fell back, so I though he was dead or had fainted. Then the snake's mouth opened very, very wide and started to swallow him from the head down--his clothes and everything. It all took about three hours because it was very dark when we saw it slither away and we finally came down from the tree," Buthelezi told the newspaper.

Experts reason that the python had just woken from its winter hibernation and was hungry when the boy wandered into its path.

"We have never had a case of an African rock python eating a human, but they are very opportunistic eaters," informed Craig Smith, owner of a snake park in Durbin and member of the python search team, the Telegraph reported. "The snake was obviously hungry enough to think it could cope with a child."