A two-year-old boy was minutes away from being killed by a 20-foot-long snake when heroic police jumped in and used machetes to hack the terrifying reptile away.
The yellow anaconda is one of the world’s strongest snakes and kills its prey through constriction. Its brute force meant that despite the youngster’s dad and officers trying to wrestle it off before killing it, they were unable to do so.
The toddler was playing on a riverbank when the horror unfolded. His parents, who were working nearby, heard him scream as the snake squeezed him. Luckily, a number of policemen who were patrolling the area at the time heard the toddler's mother shouting for help.
They ran to the scene and found the father trying to free his son from the grip of the beast. The officers immediately began helping the man try to uncoil the snake. But eventually, they realised the only way they could save the toddler was by killing it, so they hacked the snake to death with two machetes. The boy was then taken from the scene in Vicentin polis, Brazil, to a hospital where he received treatment for a superficial snakebite. He was discharged a short while later on Saturday (18 November).
Police lieutenant Carlos Diniz told local media: "The family heard the child's screams. The team was on patrol, and they heard the mother shouting for help while the father tried to free the child from the snake, which was coiled around him. We were just trying to save the child, and the only way was by killing the animal. We didn't want the animal to die; our goal was to ensure both the child and the animal survived. It's an incident that will stay with us for the rest of our lives; the child has been given a second chance at life."
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