A woman has described her terrifying ordeal after a python wrapped itself around her in an attempt to strangle her to death.

The Thai woman, Arom Arunroj, 64, was trapped in the coils of a 20kg (44lb) python for around two hours in her own home after it bit her leg whilst she was doing the washing up.

Rescuers were finally able to free her after a neighbour raised the alarm and they forced their way into the house in Samut Prakan, a province south of Bangkok, reports The Guardian.

Ms Arunroj said she was washing up at about 8.30pm when she suddenly felt something biting her leg. The python was four metres (13ft) long and weighed more than 20kg (44lb).

In the frightening footage filmed by first responders, Arom can be seen sitting on the floor with the snake coiled around her waist.

She said: "I looked at it, and it was a snake," in an interview broadcast on Thai media.

Ms Arunroj said she tried to fight the snake and had cried out for help but no one heard her.

She said in desperation she grabbed the snake's head in the hope that it would let her go, adding "but it didn't, instead it kept strangling me".

A neighbour finally heard her calls for help and rang for assistance at 10pm. Police officer Sgt Maj Anusorn Wongmali Anusorn said he had kicked down Arom's door after hearing a weak voice coming from inside.

He said: "She had probably been strangled for a while, because her skin was pale. It was a python, a big one. I saw a bite mark on her leg but [knew] there might be some elsewhere too."

The police were joined by members of the She Poh Tek Tung foundation, a rescue organisation.

Ms Arunroj was taken to hospital for treatment. Python bites are not poisonous but they can cause infections. Instead, they kill their prey by wrapping themselves around it and suffocating it.

Last year a UK grandad spoke of his horror after an 11-foot-long python sunk its fangs into him after it slithered into his home through a conservatory window.

Grandfather Rob Byrne has called for "totally irresponsible" snake owners to be more careful with their pets after the male reticulated python got into his house and bit his arm.

The horrified 61-year-old made the discovery as he tried to shut the conservatory windows of his semi-detached home in Bishopstoke, near Eastleigh, Hants, and saw something moving through his blinds.

He said if the snake had attacked his two-year-old granddaughter who lives with the couple, "she would now be dead".