Brave snake wranglers caught a cobra barehanded before giving the thirsty reptile a drink of water.

Ampai Chuaychu, 63, was sewing on her porch in Trang province on January 18 when she heard a strange noise. She looked down under her seat and was frozen in fear upon seeing the large black king cobra slithering between her feet. It slunk away and hid behind a row of potted plants.

Coming to her senses, she ran to tell her husband of the venomous trespasser that had crawled into their home. They decided to call the snake wranglers as the cobra was too large to deal with on their own.

Ampai said: 'We didn't dare catch it because of its large size, so I called the officers instead. I was so shocked because I had never seen a snake this big before in my life.'

The team arrived and combed through the garden, finding the serpent hidden beneath some foliage behind the couple's potted plants. Without hesitation, a specialist seized it by the head without using any tools. The rescue operation took just 15 minutes since the animal did not put up a fight.

The wranglers then dragged the snake out of the grass to take its measurements, recording a length of 4.2 metres and a weight of about 20 kilograms.

Wuttichai Pornpermsuk, an officer of the Ta Khao Rescue Association's snake-catching team, said the snake was unexpectedly docile. He added that it will be brought to the team's office and will be used to teach new students how to catch snakes. The cobra will be released into the wild after a month.