Man survives flood after spending 20hrs on snake-infested tree in Qionghai

An aged resident of Qionghai in the flood-hit Hainan province was rescued from a tree last week after he had spent 20 hours amid snakes and mice, watching his land drown.

Zhou, who is in his 60s, was in his betel palm garden on the evening of Oct 6, when a sudden downpour inundated the property.

Zhou climbed a tree to avoid the flood and ended up spending the next 20 hours waiting for help.

It was not until the sun came up that Zhou found himself surrounded by snakes and mice that had crawled up the tree in the dead of the night to escape the flood.

Miraculously, Zhou's relatives, who arrived in a boat several hours later, found him sitting atop a branch woundless.