Man attacked by 11-foot-long python

It was a scaly encounter.

A UK grandfather had to fight off an 11-foot-long python after it slithered through a window into his home.

Rob Byrne, 61, of Bishopstoke, suffered minor injuries after wrestling with the male reticulated python, which climbed through his window and attacked him, the Telegraph reported.

“It tried to bite me and coil around me,” Byrne said about the limbless interloper. “Its fangs nicked my arm and drew blood as it tried to sink its teeth into my arm.

“It caught the back of my arm with one fang and the other fang got caught in my polo shirt,” the retired gas industry worker said, according to the outlet.

“Once I shoved it away it withdrew to halfway across the conservatory, but it pinned me in the corner and it was sort of waving and looking at me,” Byrne continued.

He said the scaly creature also scared his wife and granddaughter.

“At that point my wife and granddaughter came into the conservatory, saw it and screamed. That must have spooked it because it then slowly slithered back out of the window,” the grandfather of five said.

“Luckily, flight or fight kicked in and I managed to fight it off, whereupon it retreated and coiled itself from the windows and dropped slowly down into the garden,” he added.

Byrne said that despite his adrenaline-fueled excitement, he was struck that had his 2-year-old granddaughter — who lives with him — been attacked, she’d likely be dead.

“I know there are reptile enthusiasts out there that are perfectly responsible and no problem to their neighbors or the wider public, but there must be some people that are totally irresponsible for so many snakes to be on the loose,” he said.

“I did not expect to be attacked by a giant python in my own home but if it happened to me, it can happen to you,” Byrne noted.

He wrote government officials a letter asking for pythons to be placed on a list of legally controlled animals.

“It angers me because something much worse could have happened,” Byrne said.

The snake has since been captured and taken to a reptile welfare center.

Its owner has not come forward to claim it yet.

The terrifying incident comes after Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service reported a spike in calls to snake escapes.

The agency urged owners that if they cannot afford to pay for the heating of their snake’s vivarium, they should “do something responsible” with their reptile.

“Snakes are escape artists. You’ve only got to turn your back for a second and the snake will have disappeared and we really don’t recommend taking snakes out into the garden,” said Chris Newman, director of the National Centre for Reptile Welfare, the Telegraph reported.