Two boys in Canada were strangled to death in their sleep by a python snake that escaped a pet store and slithered up through their vent, The Christian Science Monitor reports.
Autopsies on the brothers, ages 5 and 7, will be performed on Tuesday.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Const. Julie Rogers-Marsh said the boys were visiting a friend's apartment above Reptile Ocean, Inc., an exotic pet store in Campbellton, New Brunswick.
Jean-Claude Savoie, the store owner, told Global News TV that he was completely shocked when he discovered the "horrific scene" in his living room, where the boys were sleeping, and immediately pinned the python down and put it in a cage.
Savoie said the boys were the children of his best friend and were often visitors at his apartment. Rogers-Marsh believed the snake escaped at some point during the night and is believed to have made its way to the apartment through a ventilation system.
"It's very, very unusual and very tragic and difficult for everyone involved," Rogers-Marsh said.
A friend of the boys that was sleeping in another room was unharmed. Savoie said he had the python in his store for 10 years and it had been always kept alone in its environment.
Ian Comeau, the town's deputy mayor, said the death of the boys is "a shock...it is unbelievable." He also affirmed that Reptile Ocean, Inc. properly followed all rules and guidelines to operate.
African rock pythons are nonvenemous snakes found in Sub-Saharan Africa and can grow up to 20 feet long. They usually kill by constriction and can eat their prey up to the size of an antelope.
However, the snake rarely kills humans. Within the past 50 years, there have been only 5 reported attacks of humans by African rock pythons, 4 of which resulted in death.
