A 2.5-metre pet Burmese python has broken out of a home terrarium and strangled a two-year-old girl in her bedroom in central Florida, US authorities say.
Shaunnia Hare was already dead when paramedics arrived about 10am on Wednesday, police Lieutenant Bobby Caruthers said.
Charles Jason Darnell, the snake's owner and the boyfriend of Shaunnia's mother, discovered the snake missing from its terrarium and went to the girl's room, where he found it on the girl and bite marks on her head, Caruthers said.
A 12-foot pet Burmese python has broken out of its enclosure and strangled a 2-year-old girl in her bedroom at a central Florida home.
Darnell, 32, stabbed the snake until he was able to pry the child away.
"The baby's dead!" a sobbing caller from the house screamed to an emergency all dispatcher in a recording. "Our stupid snake got out in the middle of the night and strangled the baby."
Authorities did not identify the caller and removed the person's name from the recording.
"She got out of the cage last night and got into the baby's crib and strangled her to death," the caller said.
Authorities removed the snake from the home on Wednesday afternoon. Once outside the small home, bordered by cow pastures, the live snake was placed in a bag then inside a dog crate.
Darnell did not have a permit for the snake, which would be a second-degree misdemeanour, said Joy Hill, a spokeswoman with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
He has not been charged, but Caruthers said investigators were looking into whether there was child neglect or if any other laws were broken.
Hill said the snake will be placed with someone who has a permit, pending an investigation into the girl's death.
The Humane Society of the United States said that including Wednesday's death, at least 12 people have been killed in the US by pet pythons since 1980, including five children.
Burmese pythons are not native to Florida, but they easily survive in the state and can reach a length of eight metres and weigh more than 90kg.
Some owners have freed pythons into the wild and a population of them has taken hold in the Everglades. One killed an alligator and then burst when it tried to eat it. Scientists also speculate a number of Burmese pythons escaped in 1992 from pet shops battered by Hurricane Andrew and have been reproducing since.
"It's becoming more and more of a problem, perhaps no fault of the animal, more a fault of the human,'' said Jorge Pino, a state wildlife commission spokesman. "People purchase these animals when they're small. When they grow, they either can't control them or release them.''
George Van Horn, owner of Reptile World Serpentarium in St Cloud, said the strangulation could have occurred because the snake felt threatened or because it thought the child was food.
"They are always operating on instinct,'' he said. "Even the largest person can become overpowered by a python.''
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