Snakes
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A python has killed two young boys who were sleeping in an apartment above a Canadian pet shop, police said.

The two boys, aged five and seven, were found strangled to death in the apartment above the shop, which specializes in exotic animals.

Police in the New Brunswick city of Campbellton say they believe the snake escaped from its enclosure on the building's ground floor, then slithered through a ventilation system into the upstairs apartment and killed two young boys as they slept, police said Monday.

The brothers, aged five and seven, were visiting the apartment of a friend above Reptile Ocean Inc., an exotic pet store in Campbellton, New Brunswick, said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Const. Julie Rogers-Marsh.

Police arrived at the apartment around 6:30 am and found the two boys dead. A friend of the boys was sleeping in another room and was unharmed, Rogers-Marsh said. She said the owner of the pet store lived in the apartment.

Ian Comeau, Campbellton's deputy mayor, described the incident as a "tragedy... the city is in shock."

The owner of Reptile Ocean told CTV News that he had had the snake since 2001.