A videograb shows the five year-old girl bitten by the snake.

Gulf Today Report

A video shared online shows a snake around the neck of a 5-year-old girl before it bites her at the Butterfly Park petting zoo in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

The girl reportedly ate a chicken meal before handling the snake and also played with chicks at the petting zoo.

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Suggesting one theory about why the snake may have bitten the child, 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 footage was shared on the Russian social network VK on August 30 where it has been viewed over 45,000 times within a matter of hours.

The non-venomous snake, believed to be a hook-snouted rufous beaked snake from East Africa, was placed around the girl’s neck and bit her on the face while she was posing for the camera. The girl was rushed to a local hospital by her parents.

The girl's father Vladimir told local media: “I went to pick up my wife and children and they told me that my youngest daughter was bitten by a snake. I asked to see proof that the snake was non-venomous, that it was safe.

According to the petting zoo, this is the moment a young girl is bitten on the face by a snake at a Russian petting zoo.

The zoo added that they would stop snake-handling activities in future to prevent a similar situation from taking place in the future.