Peggy Jones, from Silsbee, near Beaumont, was carrying out the garden chore when a snake fell on her - seemingly out of the sky - and wrapped itself around her arm, she told NBC affiliate KPRC-TV.

"The snake was squeezing so hard, and I was waving my arms in the air. And then, this hawk was swooping down clawing at my arm over and over," Ms Jones said.

"I just kept saying, 'Help me, Jesus! Help me, Jesus!'"

Ms Jones said the hawk attempted at least four times to take the snake before eventually succeeding in its mission, leaving blood everywhere.

Her husband then ran out to see what was happening.

"I was yelling and screaming. He didn't know what I was saying. I thought I was bit by a snake," she added.

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Ms Jones said she then went to hospital, where she was treated for the cuts inflicted on her by the hawk, and bruises from the snake wrapping itself around her arm.

Despite not being bitten by the snake, she had a narrow escape, saying: "I discovered the lens on my glasses was broken and there was snake venom on my glasses."

Remarkably, she had previously survived a snake bite, adding, "I feel like the luckiest person alive to have survived this."

Ms Jones has since been back mowing her lawn - under the close supervision of her husband.