MIKE SCHNEIDER ORLANDO A 12-foot pet python broke out of an aquarium yesterday and strangled a two-year-old girl in the bedroom of her Florida home.

MIKE SCHNEIDER ORLANDO

A 12-foot pet python broke out of an aquarium yesterday and strangled a two-year-old girl in the bedroom of her Florida home.

Lieutenant Steve Binegar, of Sumter County Sheriff's Office, said the toddler died in the town of Oxford, 50 miles north-west of Orlando.

Sheriff's officials told an Orlando newspaper the Burmese python broke out of a glass aquarium overnight, slithered to the girl's bedroom and attacked her.

The owner found the snake wrapped around the girl and stabbed it, while others called emergency police dispatchers.

It was not immediately known if the snake had been killed. The newspaper said the snake slithered away and was missing.

Police did not release the girl's name and officers remained at the scene outside her home.

The Humane Society of the US said the toddler's death meant at least 12 people had been killed in the US by pet pythons since 1980, including five children.

Pythons can kill by wrapping themselves around a human.

Jorge Pino, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said pythons were not native to Florida and could easily grow to 12ft. He said owners needed a licence to keep a python.

Some owners have freed pythons into the wild, and a population of them has taken hold in the Everglades.

Scientists also speculate a bevy of Burmese pythons escaped in 1992 from pet shops battered by Hurricane Andrew and have been reproducing since.

"It's becoming more of a problem," Pino said. "People buy these snakes when they're small. When they grow, they either can't control them or they release them." - AP