Raghunath Mohanty, who lives in a village near Puri in eastern India had left his old socks in a storeroom and was alarmed to find a snake had hidden inside.

On May 25, Mohanty set out to clean the storeroom and throw away the junk that had piled up and when he lifted the socks he found something heavy and stirring inside.

Suspecting it was a snake he called Snake Helpline, which sent a volunteer, Susant Kumar Behera, to his home.

When Behera tried to check, a cobra peeped out.

Realising that a deadly snake had taken refuge inside, Behera carefully lifted the abandoned socks along with the snake and put it inside a bag. He released it in a nearby forest later.

Founder of Snake Helpline, Subhendu Mallik, said: "Hoarding junk is always an invitation for frogs and rats to take shelter and snakes follow them.

"Old socks though of no use for any human, [it] provided an excellent hideout for the cobra."

Raghunath Mohanty, who lives in a village near Puri in eastern India, had left his old socks in a store room and forgotten about it.

On May 25, he set out to clean the store room and throw away the junk that had piled up.

When he lifted the socks he found something heavy and stirring inside. Suspecting it was a snake he called Snake Helpline, which sent a volunteer, Susant Kumar Behera, to his home.

When Behera tried to check, a deadly cobra peeped out.

Realising that the venomous snake had taken refuge inside, Behera carefully lifted the abandoned socks along with the snake and put it inside a bag. He released it in a nearby forest later.

Founder of Snake Helpline, Subhendu Mallik, said: "Hoarding junk is always an invitation for frogs and rats to take shelter and snakes follow them. Old socks though of no use for any human, provided an excellent hideout for the cobra."