Queensland dad frees four-year-old son from jaws of six-metre python

A Queensland dad has described how he punched a snake in the head to free his young son from its grip.

Clifford Thompson had been playing in the backyard of their Airlie Beach home when danger struck.

Lurking in the bushes was a six metre scrub python, and the four-year-old was its target.

“I just ran straight up and punched it straight in the head,” dad Evan Thompson told Sunrise.

“At that stage it let go, which was great, but as soon as it let go it curled right back up and went straight and bit him again.”

Mr Thompson said that after the second strike, it started pulling his son off the boardwalk and into the bush.

“So I just grabbed it, pretty much its jaw and just bent it back as hard as I could to get it off him.”

Clifford escaped with minor injuries but his family is well aware just how serious the showdown with the snake could have been.

Mr Thompson said the snake was unrelenting.

“When I heard him screaming I just looked over and just saw what was going on,” he said.

“This is insane. I pretty much just ran in straight away. I didn’t have time to grab like a stick or anything. I just pretty much had to react then and there.

“Fortunately I kind of did I guess.”