Stomach churning footage shows the moment a 12ft-long python was pulled from a car engine.

Shopkeeper Tee Natwijit, 57, was horrified when customers told him they had seen the python's tail wiggling out from under the bonnet.

The printing business boss ran over to his Isuzu Grand Adventure 4x4 and recoiled when he lifted the lid and saw the beast glaring back at him.

He quickly slammed it shut and called local animal handlers. They arrived and dragged out the 30kg whopper from inside the engine where it had curled up in Phranakhon Si Ayutthaya, Thailand, on May 16.

The snake was seen wriggling and writhing around after being disturbed in its hiding place.

Relieved Tee said: ''Lots of chickens have been going missing one by one recently. I think this snake is to blame.

''I don't want to think about it. If I had started driving and the snake but my leg, I am having nightmares about that already. ''

Rescue worker Kritpol Poolsong, 23, said the snake was caught with a lasso and stuffed into a bag to be released back into the wild.

He added: ''When there is heavy rain and the climate becomes cooler snakes will look for somewhere warm and dry. Car engines are perfect for them. People should check before they start driving.''