A two-year-old boy saw a lucky escape after a 20-foot-long snake coiled itself around his body.
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 a yellow anaconda – one of the planet’s strongest snakes.
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 Vicentinópolis, Brazil, to a hospital where he received treatment for a superficial snakebite.
He was discharged a short while later on Saturday (18 Nov).
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.”
Also known as the Paraguayan anaconda, it is one of the largest snakes in the world, is non-venomous, and kills its prey by constriction.
Biologist Edson Abrão told local media: “This animal is very strong; its strength is second only to the python.”
