A monitor lizard miraculously survived being swallowed by a python and then spat out again at a home in Thailand.

The four-foot-long reptile was eaten by the snake in an elderly woman's home in Bangkok in the early hours of this morning (September 12).

The woman discovered the bloated python and called rescue workers, who arrived at around 5:00am when the monitor lizard had almost completely devoured the lizard.

Volunteer Somjed Kasulong, 35, said the python tried to escape when they arrived but they prevented it from leaving.

The snake then began contorting and widening its jaws. The dark black slime-covered unconscious monitor lizard then slid out in under a minute.

Incredibly, the wild water monitor lizard slowly came back to life then scampered through the room.

Astonished Somjet said: ''In all of my ten years of catching snakes I have never seen anything like this.

''I have never heard of anything surviving after a python has eaten them because the snake will suffocate them first. It's a miracle. The monitor lizard must be very, very strong.

''The lizard might also have played dead to save its energy and let the snake try to swallow it. But it would never have been able to escape if the snake was not disturbed. It was the lizard's lucky day.''

Somjet added: ''We checked the monitor lizard and it did not have any injures. The snake was also fine.''

A monitor lizard SURVIVED after being swallowed by python then spat out again.

The 4ft long reptile was eaten by the snake in a home in Bangkok, Thailand, in the early hours of this morning (12/09).

An elderly woman living at the home heard the struggle then went downstairs and found the python stretched out along her kitchen floor - with a noticeably larger stomach.

Rescue workers arrived at around 5am when the monitor lizard had almost completely devoured the lizard, with only a small part of its tail sticking out of its jaws.

Volunteer Somjed Kasulong, 35, said the python tried to escape when they arrived but they prevented it from leaving.

The snake then began contorting and widening its jaws. The dark black slime-covered unconscious monitor lizard then slid out in under a minute.

Incredibly, the wild water monitor lizard slowly came back to life then scampered through the room.

Astonished Somjet said: ''In all of my ten years of catching snakes I have never seen anything like this.

''I have never heard of anything surviving after a python has eaten them because the snake will suffocate them first. It's a miracle. The monitor lizard must be very, very strong.

''The lizard might also have played dead to save its energy and let the snake try to swallow it. But it would never have been able to escape if the snake was not disturbed. It was the lizard's lucky day.''

Somjet, who attended the property with one other rescue worker, said the monitor lizard ran away in one direction and the snake slithered off in another.

One volunteer went after the lizard and one chased the snake. Both creatures were caught and put in sacks before being driven away and released.

Somjet added: ''We checked the monitor lizard and it did not have any injures. The snake was also fine.''

The woman who lives alone at the house in the Nong Chok district of the Thai capital said she first found the creatures in her kitchen just before 5am.

She told the rescue team she saw the large bulge in the python's stomach and was ''suspicious'' of what it was because she does not have any pets.

Somjet added: ''The resident was worried about what the snake had eaten. She's quite old and it was a very unpleasant scene for her to wake up to when she went downstairs for breakfast.''