SHANGHAI DAILY (China) 11 September 08 Old woman survives ordeal trapped in well with huge snake (Yang Jian)
A mentally ill woman miraculously survived after falling into a well where a two-meter-long snake wrapped itself around her arm for about two hours yesterday, a Henan Province news Website reported today.
The 79-year-old woman, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, tumbled into a hidden dry well on farm land around 7am in the province’s Xuchang City, Dahe.cn said.
The dry well was about 20 meters deep and 40 centimeters wide but a lot of water had collected inside following torrential rain in the area. The woman was submerged up to her chest, the report said.
Her plight was discovered by locals who called fire fighters to rescue the woman. When they arrived the woman was in a faint condition and one of the rescuers, a man named Li Xiaolong, hung himself down into the well to give her a bottle of oxygen.
But as Li attended to the woman a second time, attempting to pull her free, a huge snake suddenly appeared, wrapping itself around the woman’s right arm.
Li eventually pulled on protective gloves and went into the well again. When the snake attempted to attack him, the rescuer grabbed it by the head and pulled it from the woman’s arm.
Li then hung himself down into the well for a fifth time to finally pull the distraught woman free.
The woman was taken to a nearby hospital where doctors treated her for bruises and shock but otherwise she was in good condition.
Old woman survives ordeal trapped in well with huge snake