A seven-month-old baby was killed in her crib by a wild cobra.

Ave May Utlang Gailanan was soundly asleep near the veranda of their house in Davao del Norte, the Philippines when the snake slithered into their home last Monday afternoon (Jan 18).

Her mother, May, left her for a moment to prepare lunch and returned to eat by her baby daughter’s side.

While eating, the mother checked on Ave but panicked when she appeared to have turned light purple.

May shouted for help when she realised that the baby had stopped breathing.

The family rushed the baby to the hospital but medics declared her dead upon arrival.

Ave’s furious father, who was left at home, hunted for the creature and found it hiding in the room.

He grabbed it with his bare hands and threw it outside their home where angry villagers hit it with a pole until it was dead.

Their neighbour Lenielyn Luardo Barliso said it was the first time they caught a snake inside the house.

She said: ‘There are forests nearby but this was unusual because the snake entered a house. These creatures usually stay away from where there are people.’

The different species of cobras are responsible for tens of thousands of deaths each year across the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.