This is the chilling moment an 8ft long snake slithered across a shop floor.

The wild reptile sparked panic after entering the supermarket and darting into the storeroom in Chanthaburi, Thailand, on November 3.

Terrified workers called the emergency services who began searching for the serpent.

Shop assistant Tangkwa Samakphan said the snake had a small plastic bag stuck on its head and was trying to wiggle out of it when it entered their workplace.

He said: "We all ran outside when we saw the snake in the room. We didn't know if it was venomous, so we called our manager and the reptile rescuers for help."

It was last seen hiding among the shelves before the animal rescuers arrived at the shop to extract the animal.

However, the reptile handlers had difficulty finding the snake among the boxes and products that filled the room so they had to watch the CCTV footage to find where it went.

Through the recordings, they found the reptile two hours later trapped inside the narrow gap in the basement ceiling where it had squeezed while trying to escape.

The rescuers used a hammer to smash the concrete and widen the gap before pulling the snake out. It was identified as a nonvenomous oriental rat snake or Ptyas mucosa.

The relieved workers thanked the animal rescuers before they left with the snake in a sack to be released later in the wild.