A 10ft long python was caught after trying to kill a pet cat inside a Buddhist prayer room.

Piwan Sudathep, 60, was relaxing downstairs when he heard a loud noise on the second floor of the temple in Chonburi, eastern Thailand.

Piwan said he walked into the room and found a huge python trying to eat his pet cat for dinner.

His cat was lucky to survive the ferocious reptile's attacks before he entered the room which scared the snake away.

Piwan said: "I found it trying to eat my kitten when I entered the shrine. Luckily, I found them before anything serious could happen."

The shocked resident grabbed his cat and called the local animal rescuers for help to trap the snake.

The python was found curled up in a set of Buddhist altar tables.

The rescuers arrived and spent almost half an hour hunting the reptile using a pole with a noose before they finally caught it and dragged it out of its hiding place.

One of the rescuers said: "The python must have been hungry because there is a shortage of food in the wild."

They stretched the serpent out for it to be measured before they carefully placed it into a sack to be released later in the woods away from the village.