A little boy in Australia was lucky to escape near-certain death by snake thanks to his heroic grandfather.
Ronald Rutland was with his grandson Nash at their home on the Tablelands, near Cairns, when disaster struck.
A scrub python bit the toddler multiple times before beginning to squeeze his arm in a death grip. His mother, Amanda Rutland, tried to pry open the massive python's jaws - but was also bitten.
When Mr Rutland intervened the snake struck again, before it started to wrap around his arm too. He told 7 News he could feel his heart pounding as the circulation was cut off.
"I yelled out to my wife: 'Get me a knife'," he said, adding that she ended up bringing out a kitchen knife - "the bluntest one in the place."
Despite the bluntness, he managed to slash at the python and free both himself and little Naish - who wasn't even two years old.
According to 7 News, Naish narrowly avoided becoming only the second person in Australia to be killed by a python.
"If it was [his] torso or neck, it would have been a totally different story," Ms Rutland told the news company.
Newshub.
