A horrified shopkeeper found a 20ft long python sleeping in her toilet.

Chalida Thawephol, 37, spotted the snake's tail after her five-year-old son went to the bathroom and told her there was ‘’something strange’’ inside.

The mother-of-two went to investigate - then ran out screaming at the hideous sight of the super-size serpent.

She called rescuers who arrived and dragged the enormous reptile out of her milk shop into the road.

They wrestled the beast into a canvas bag - before putting a penny in a set of digital scales outside a 7/11 store to weigh it. But the animal was too big to fit on the device and was moved onto a set of rusty old scales where it read 29.7kg.

Chalida said her son first went into the bathroom and saw the snake and told her but she didn’t believe him - until she checked herself.

Snake catcher Thammasatri Maneerat said the snake is likely to have slithered inside the building to keep warm while temperatures fall in Winter.

He said: ‘’The weather is very cold at this time. This may have caused the snake to escape the cold air and sleep in the toilet where there is warm water. It was approximately 30kg and around six metres long.

‘’If anybody finds any snake species they should notify the rescue immediately so they can be returned to nature. Don’t try to catch them yourself as it could be dangerous. Even skilled snake catchers are bitten several times.’'