African Rock Python Strangles Two Young Boys to Death

Two boys, ages 5 and 7, were strangled to death by an African rock python while spending the night at a friend's apartment above a pet shop in Canada.

Though police said they are not sure how the non-venomous snake escaped, they believe it made its way out of its cage and through the ventilation system up into where the boys were sleeping.

In response to the event, the New Brunswick RCMP have launched a criminal investigation into the case, reporting that the snake believed to be responsible weighs some 100 pounds and measures roughly 15 feet long.

According to CBC Canada, the boys were attending a sleepover with the pet shop owner's son.

"It's very unusual and very tragic and difficult for everyone involved," The Independent reports Const. Julie Rogers-Marsh as saying.

BBC said the town's deputy mayor Ian Comeau stated that the pet shop had a license and kept alligators, crocodiles and snakes at the time he toured it two years ago.

"Everything was according to our bylaws, to the provincial guidelines," he explained.

Meanwhile, shop owner Jean-Claude Savoie said he thought the boys were sleeping until he saw debris had fallen from a hole in the ceiling.

"I turn the lights on and I seen this horrific scene," he told BBC News.

Savoie said he had owned the python for at least 10 years.

According to National Geographic, rock pythons boast an "especially nasty reputation." As Africa's largest snake, the African rock python is not easily tamed like other kinds of pythons.

"I personally don't see why people need to have these things as pets -- they're not good pets and look at what ends up happening," Kenneth Krysko, senior herpetologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History, said. "I was shocked to hear about this."

While it's unclear why the python attacked the boys, Ian Recchio, the curator of reptiles and amphibians at Los Angeles Zoo, also told National Geographic that "when [snakes] go through all the trouble and exert all the energy to bite something and constrict it, it's because they're hungry generally."