Four-year-old boy attacked by 4.5m python at family’s Airlie Beach home

A Queensland man has told of the terrifying moment a snake attacked his four-year-old son and tried to “drag him away” at their family home, and of the moment he discovered the boy clinging to a post “for his life” during the five-minute ordeal.

Evan Thompson says his son Clifford was attacked by a carpet python at their Airlie Beach home. Picture: Evan Thompson

A QUEENSLAND man has spoken of the terrifying moment a snake attacked his four-year-old son and tried to “drag him away” at their family home.

Evan Thompson was with friends at his Airlie Beach house when he said a scrub python attacked his son Clifford about 5.45pm yesterday, while they were walking across an outdoor boardwalk from the pool to the house.

The family just bought the property and moved in five days ago.

“I heard my son screaming,” Mr Thompson told The Courier-Mail.

“I ran out to him and saw this massive snake on his leg, dragging him off the boardwalk.

“He was hanging on to the side-rail post for his life.

“If I wasn’t there at the time, this snake could have killed him.

“It could have killed my kid easily.”

Clifford recovering in hospital after his terrifying ordeal. Picture: Evan Thompson

Mr Thompson said he ran up to the snake and punched it in the head.

“It let him go and then it bit him again,” he said.

“He (Clifford) was really distressed.

“I couldn’t get it off so I had to pry it’s jaws open.

“It was in the garden, we had to kill it with a sledgehammer.”

Mr Thompson said his son was taken to Proserpine Hospital and then on to Mackay Hospital and has undergone surgery on his leg.

Some of the injuries Clifford Thompson suffered. Picture: Evan Thompson

Evan Thompson finally killed the snake with a sledgehammer after it attacked his son. Picture: Evan Thompson

He said he believed the snake was 15 foot (4.5 metres). The ordeal lasted about five minutes.

“The fact that the snake was so large, it was literally pulling him off the boardwalk

he’s hanging on the rail and it’s just dragging him, ripping his leg open and that’s when I knew I just had to act,” he said.

“It’s ripped his leg pretty badly, I put a dressing on his leg and a tourniquet to immobilise his leg.

“It’s a pretty hectic situation.

“I was talking to the doctors and nurses and they say they’ve never seen anything like this.

“It was probably one of the biggest ones I’ve ever seen, they are not renowned for being so ballsy.”

Evan Thompson with Clifford Clifford in hospital following the attack. Picture: Evan Thompson

Mr Thompson said he was telling his son’s story as a warning to other families.

“This is the last thing you would think is going to happen,” he said.

“It could happen to other children.

“It was quite brutal.

“I pretty much had to manhandle the snake.

“He’s seen snakes before (but) it was pretty much trying to eat him, so a pretty traumatic ordeal.”

“He’s doing alright today. It bit him twice. He’s a tough little bugger.”

Originally published as Four-year-old boy attacked by 4.5m python at family’s Airlie Beach home