Man attacked by 11-foot-long python

It was a tricky encounter.

A British grandfather had to fight off an 11ft long python after it slithered through a window of his home.

Rob Byrne, 61, from Bishopstoke, was slightly injured after wrestling with the male reticulated python, which climbed through his window and attacked him, the Telegraph reported.

“It tried to bite me and wrap itself around me,” Byrne said of the limbless intruder. “Its fangs cut into my arm and drew blood as it tried to sink its teeth into my arm.

“He grabbed the back of my arm with one fang and the other fang got stuck in my polo shirt,” the gas industry retiree said, according to the media.

“Once I pushed him away, he walked halfway off the porch, but he cornered me and he was kind of waving at me and looking at me,” Byrne continued.

He said the scaly creature also frightened his wife and granddaughter.

“At that point my wife and granddaughter came into the veranda, saw him and screamed. This must have scared him, because he then slowly slipped out the window,” the grandfather of five said.

“Luckily the flight or fight started and I managed to fight it off, after which it retreated, wrapped itself around the windows and slowly fell into the garden,” he added.

Byrne said that despite his adrenaline-fueled excitement, he was struck by the fact that if his 2-year-old granddaughter – who lives with him – had been attacked, she probably would have died.

“I know there are reptile enthusiasts who are perfectly responsible and pose no problem to their neighbors or the general public, but there must be some totally irresponsible people for so many snakes to be on the loose,” he said. he declared.

“I didn’t expect to be attacked by a giant python in my own home, but if it happens to me, it can happen to you,” Byrne noted.

He wrote a letter to government officials requesting that pythons be placed on a list of legally controlled animals.

“It makes me angry because something much worse could have happened,” Byrne said.

The snake has since been captured and taken to a reptile conservation center.

Its owner has not yet come forward to claim it.

The terrifying incident comes after Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Services reported an increase in the number of calls for snake escapes.

The agency urged owners to “do something responsible” with their reptile, if they cannot afford to pay for heating their snake’s vivarium.

“Snakes are escape artists. Just turn your back for a second and the snake will be gone and we really don’t recommend bringing snakes into the garden,” said Chris Newman, director of the National Center for Reptile Welfare, the Telegraph reported.