Sleeping boy bitten by snake dies

A four-and-a-half year old boy died here on Sunday after being bitten in the nose by a snake while he was sleeping, police said.

A police official, residing near the victim's house, told PTI that the child was asleep alongside his mother on the floor when the snake, said to be a krait, apparently fell from the ceiling and landed on the boy's face.

The mother did not know what had happened and got alerted to the presence of the reptile only when it slithered away over her.

Only when the boy started crying, his mother noticed the bite marks on his nose and she took him to a hospital, but he died on the way, said the official.

Nobody knew how the snake ended up on the ceiling, he added.