Man arrested with snake on market square

5 August 2005

BRUSSELS — Police arrested a man in Quaregnon on Thursday after he was seen walking on the market square with a python snake around his neck.

The man was planning to show his pet to friends when he was arrested, the Bergen public prosecution office said.

The snake was 2m long, so was not fully grown. Adult pythons can grow to 5 or 6m, newspaper ‘Het Laatste Nieuws’ reported on Friday.

However, the reptile was handed over to the zoo Parc Pardisio on Friday.

“According to me, it is the first time that this sort of python has been seized in Belgium,” an environmental officer with the federal police, Laurent Grolet, said.

An expert with the federal Health Ministry said the snake could kill by suffocating its victims and ruled that it was too dangerous to be left with the arrested man.

Furthermore, the owner of the snake was not in possession of the necessary permits to keep the snake.

Quaregnon is located in the Hainaut province of Wallonia.

Subject: Belgian news