Python bites handler

TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. -- A 14-foot python bit its handler and tried to drag her into its cage during a show at an aquarium, and wouldn't release the woman until a police officer zapped the reptile with a stun gun.

Alison Cobianchi, 18, was taking Chloe, a Burmese python, out of her cage for the daily snake presentation Saturday at the Tarpon Springs Aquarium when the snake wrapped itself around her arm and waist.

Visitors and aquarium employees kept the nonvenomous snake from pulling Cobianchi into the cage, but couldn't make it release its grip.

Police were called to help. "We either had to Taser it, oor we would have had to kill it," police Sgt. Allen MacKenzie said.

Cobianchi suffered puncture wounds on her wrist.