A greedy python was caught after eating three fully-grown cats and strangling a fourth before hiding in a home's roof beams.

Terrified owner Somjit Srasom, 60, was woken up by the sound of a screaming cat in Krabi, southern Thailand last Wednesday night (June 24).

The drowsy resident followed the sounds and found the 17ft long snake strangling one of his moggies. Three others had already been eater by the ferocious snake that night and it was trying to devour a fourth.

Somjit ran to the bedroom to wake his children and pulled his remaining cat to safety before calling the rescue team.

When the rescue team arrived at the house, the reptile had already slithered up to hide on a crossbeam.

Snake catchers spent only 10 minutes to catch the serpent because it could not resist with three cats inside its belly.

The optimistic owner said he was upset to lose three pet cats but he still believed that the python coming to his house was a sign of good luck.

He said: "I have five cats and three of them were eaten. Another one died from getting strangled by the snake.

"Luckily, I managed to rescue the last one from harm. Since I have never seen a python this big before I believe it might bring me luck."

The huge snake was taken by the rescuers and will be released in the wild away from the villages.