Snake-hawk duo attacks woman

A snake fell onto the forearm of Peggy Jones, a Texas woman, while she was performing her routine lawn-mowing chore. She was then attacked by a hawk, as it angrily wrestled with its serpent meal.

The snake cloaked itself around her forearm and began stroking her face, as the bird plunged its claws deep into her flesh.

The dreadful encounter left her with cuts and bruises on her arm and face.

"As I was trying to sling my arm and sling the snake off, the snake wrapped around my arm," she told CBS News.

"The snake was striking in my face, it struck my glasses a couple of times... I was slinging and slinging, he was striking and striking, and he just kept hanging on," she said, adding that before she could remove the snake, the hawk began its attack.

She presumed that the snake must have been dropped by a passing bird. Her assumption was quickly confirmed when the hawk swooped down and joined in the tussle.

"Then the hawk appeared just as fast as the snake appeared," Jones said.

"The hawk grabbed the snake that was wrapped around my arm and pulled it like he was going to carry it away. And when he did, it flung my arm up. The hawk was carrying my arm and the snake with it."

The hawk stabbed her several times, as it struggled to get hold of its snake meal from her arm.

She was immediately taken to the hospital after the snake eventually left her arm.

"There were puncture wounds, cuts, abrasions, scratches and severe bruising", she said, adding that the snake's attacks on her face damaged her glasses.

She said that the attack was extremely traumatic for her, adding that she thought she was going to die and has had trouble sleeping since it happened.