A terrified schoolboy found a deadly cobra in the toilet bowl.

The young pupil went to the loo when he noticed the snake's head peering up from him in Krabi, southern Thailand, on July 17.

He ran screaming from the bathroom and told teachers. They called the emergency services who captured the 4ft long reptile with rods.

The snake was then dragged outside the home and stuffed into a sack to be released back into the wild.

One of the rescue team, Noom Udon, said: ''The student was about to use the toilet but luckily for him he spotted the snake first and told the teacher to contact us.

"If he had sat on the toilet, he could have been bitten by the serpent and since the cobra is venomous it could have been deadly.''

Officials believe the snake had entered the building through the pipework in search of food after a shortage in nearby woods.

Cobras are one of the most dangerous snakes in the world and responsible for thousands of deaths each year from biting people in South Asia.