2 boys strangled to death in their sleep by a massive python

Two brothers, age five and seven, (pictured above) have been tragically strangled to death in their sleep by a massive 16-foot python that escaped from a pet store below the apartment where the children were staying.

Connor and Noah Barth were sleeping soundly when the 100-pound African Rock Python fell from the ceiling and attacked them. The boys were spending the night with Jean-Claude Savoie, who lives above the Reptile Ocean pet store that he owns in the tiny New Brunswick city of Campbellton in Canada.

Reptile Ocean is home to a veritable menagerie of exotic animals, including crocodiles, tarantulas, tortoises and numerous snakes.

Mr Savoie walked into the living room and found the two boys dead about 6.30am on Monday. He found the snake coiled in a hole nearby. He said the creeping serpent slithered upstairs into his apartment through the ventilation ducts and creeped into the ceiling.

It then fell through the ceiling and dropped onto the small boys from above,coiled around both children and crushed them as they slept together on the floor.

The National Post reports that the snake was a 14 to 16-foot African rock python that even its owner said was 'vicious' and was rarely handled.

An autopsy will confirm the exact cause of death, though officials believe the boys were crushed to death by the snake.

The snake has been captured and turned it over to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who are examining the creature.

This anaconda is believed to be one of the very large snakes Jean-Claude Savoie kept at his Reptile Ocean pet shop