This is the moment a deadly king cobra bursts out from a family sofa that had been dragged into the street when the owners realised it had a giant snake inside.
Babulal Marandi, 65, from the city of Kota, in the Indian state of Rajasthan, said he was relaxing on his sofa when he was startled by a hissing sound.
He said that seconds later, he saw the head of the huge venomous snake emerging from the sofa and terrified that it was about to strike, he had fled.
He and his family then returned a short while later and attempted to coax the snake out of the sofa, without any success, and as a result, had called in snake catcher Govind Sharma.
By the time he arrived, the family had managed to drag the sofa out onto the street while at the same time keeping their distance.
Sharma is then seen here in this video using a special crooked stick used by snake catchers to pull open the back of the sofa, exposing the five-metre-long (16 feet) king cobra that had taken refuge inside.
Video footage taken by Sharma shows the reptile staring back at him with its mouth wide open while he attempts to use the hook to pull it out into the open.
Sometime later, the herpetologist managed to extract the snake from Marandi’s sofa successfully and released it into the Lapdura forest area nearby.
Reports claimed it is not uncommon for snakes to take refuge in warm, dark, and safe places, including living room sofas, bedroom dressers, and other heavy furniture.
Threatened by habitat destruction, the king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) has been listed as ‘Vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species since 2010.
Endemic to Asia, it is considered the world’s longest venomous snake.
