A pet snake gave its owner the slip early this morning and is on the loose in East Belfast, police said today.
The baby python is a fierce 1 1/2 to 2 feet long and is non-venomous.
However, police warned residents of Castlereagh Place and Hyndford Street that the reptile was used to balmy temperatures of above 22 degrees Celsius and was likely to have attempted to hide from the cold winter weather.
"It is likely to have wandered somewhere warm," a police spokeswoman said.
In August, a snake escaped in Omagh, Co Tyrone, when its owner left the front door open. The Hogg Island Boa was more than six-feet long, had the ability to change colour but was not poisonous.
In a separate incident last August a 33-year-old bricklayer was accused of biting the head off his girlfriend's snake during a fight. Belfast High Court heard the man remarked to his girlfriend: "Your snake tasted lovely."
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/irishtimes/fd292988-16f2-43c9-86dd-f70c18eac22b.png)