Probe after two boys strangled by 14ft snake

A 100lb (45kg) python blamed for the strangling deaths of two Canadian boys apparently escaped from its pet store enclosure, slithered through a ventilation system, and fell through a ceiling into the room where the brothers were sleeping, the shop’s owner has said.

Autopsies on the brothers, Connor Barthe, 7, and his brother Noah, 5, were being performed late last night.

The children had been visiting the apartment of a friend above an exotic pet store in Campbellton, New Brunswick, said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Julie Rogers- Marsh.