An enormous 18ft-long python was found sleeping on the narrow space between a wall and a house after eating three cats.

Kanitha Teptit, 36, was on the second-floor bedroom looking outside the when she saw something dark moving below in Saraburi province, Thailand on February 7.

The house owner went down to check what it was and panicked after realising it was a giant snake.

She ran back to the house and called her boyfriend for help who contacted the animal rescuers to extract the reptile from the property.

When the rescue team arrived, the snake had barely moved from the spot where it was found so the volunteers think that it had just eaten a huge meal.

While the snake wranglers were luring the python out, one of their neighbours, Sujrit Boonyanon, went to inform them that their three cats had disappeared.

He said: ‘I think this snake had eaten my pets. I just want to make sure it was caught because it would be dangerous to keep having it here.’

The team secured the snake’s neck with a noose attached to a long pole but they didn’t go near it as it could easily attack them.

They pulled it out of the narrow space into the road where terrified neighbours watched the rescue operation.

After almost an hour, the team were able to place the greedy snake into a sack and drove away with it to be released in the wild.

Kanitha thanked the team before they left and said that she was relieved it was out of the house.

She said: ‘Our village is near the forest so it may have come from the woods. We always see monitor lizards wandering here but this was the first time I’ve seen a snake as big as this one.

‘I feel sorry for my neighbour who lost her pets, I am relieved the snake was out of here now. We need to be careful next time.’