This is the horrifying moment a five-year-old girl was bitten on the face by a venomous snake at a petting zoo.
Little Viktoria was visiting Butterflies Park with her family when she had a small snake put around her neck while a loved one filmed.
Although the child looked nervous, the snake was initially placed but then an adult is seen moving their arm towards her.
The snake reacts in a jolt and sinks its teeth into poor Viktoria’s neck and she winces in distress.
She writhed in agony as the snake bit her before a staff member managed to remove the reptile, believed to be a hook-snouted rufous beaked snake from East Africa.
The species is not considered dangerous to humans but the girl was taken to hospital for treatment and fortunately she was ok.
One theory for the sudden attack is that the scent of chicken caused the snake to bite her.
Viktoria reportedly ate a chicken meal before handling the snake and had been playing with chicks at the Russia petting zoo.
Expert Ekaterina Uvarova said: “Snakes are very sensitive to smell.
“If it was hungry, and the girl smelled of prey like chicks this might provoke the snake to bite her.”
The bite was like a syringe prick, and the venom mild.
But Ms Uvarova is calling for petting zoos to be banned, and believes that the girl may also have been bitten- because of “the excessive attention of people”.
“An animal that is being touched all the time, which has nowhere to hide and rest, and is in constant stress,” Ms Uvarova said. “It is never good.”
Zoo workers claimed the snake had not attacked anyone before.
The girl’s father Vladimir said: “We called an ambulance and took the child to hospital to be examined.”