Python drags 5-year-old boy into pool in Australia. Then…

A five-year-old boy in Australia survived being constricted and dragged into a pool by a python. Beau Blake escaped with only minor injuries in the spine-chilling incident.

The schoolboy was playing besides the pool in his family home in Byron Bay, New South Wales on Thursday when the snake attacked him. The 10-foot python wrapped itself around the boy’s leg and pulled him into the pool. Constricted and dragged into water, Beau made a miraculous escape thanks to his grandfather, who dived into the pool to rescue him. His father Ben then managed to free him from the python’s grip.

Speaking about the incident to radio station 3AW, Beau’s father, Ben Blake, said the python had probably been lying in wait of a prey. "[Beau] was just walking around the edge of the pool... and I believe the python was sort of sitting there waiting for a victim to come along... and Beau was it,” he said.

“It was instant. I saw a big black shadow come out of the bush and before they hit the bottom (of the pool) it had completely wrapped around his leg,” Ben told 3AW.

Although a little shaken up, Beau was largely unharmed in the ordeal. “Once we cleaned up the blood and told him that he wasn't going to die because it wasn't a poisonous snake... he was pretty good actually,” his father said.

Ben held onto the python for about 10 minutes before releasing it back into the vegetation.

He said that while it is not uncommon to see snakes in Australia, the sight of a huge python lurking in the bushes was rare enough even for him.