MATTOON, Ill. – Police in east-central Illinois say a 2-foot-long ball python entered a Mattoon apartment and wrapped itself around the foot of a sleeping 1-year-old boy.

Mattoon Police Department Deputy Chief Jason Taylor tells the Mattoon Journal-Gazette that the boy’s parents awoke to find the snake attacking their son earlier this week. His father used a blanket to pull the python off the child, and his mother took the boy to a health center for treatment of a bite mark, bruise and scratches.

The child’s mother, Sara Lacey, says she’d never seen the python before and the apartment building is supposed to be pet-free.

Taylor says investigators believe the python escaped from a neighboring apartment. The snake is being held at the Coles County animal shelter.

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