A snake rescuer climbed onto the roof of a family home in western India recently to remove a deadly cobra.

The residents of the house near Pune had heard the reptile hissing for several days overhead and called in the experts on May 21.

Saidas Kusal and a colleague found the snake hidden in cracks in the roof and worked for an hour to remove the venomous creature.

They were forced to partially demolish the roof to reach the reptile.

"I feared the roof would cave in and watched my step anxiously," said Kusal.

"We felt bad at destroying the roof of a poor family. But the cobra posed a real danger to them," he added.

The cobra was later released in a wild area.

A cobra had been terrorising a poor farmer’s family near Pune in western India.

They could hear its hiss occasionally and knew that it was coming from the roof of their dilapidated house. After living in terror for a few days they called rescuer Saidas Kusal on May 21 to remove it.

Along with a colleague, Saidas climbed the terrace and removed the tiles, to get to the snake.

The cobra had found a safe refuge in the several cracks in the roof from where it could comfortably hunt rodents, which also lived on the terrace of the old house.

After working carefully for nearly an hour, Saidas managed to grab the tail of the cobra. But to free the snake and get hold of it they had to demolish a part of the roof.

Once cornered, the snake turned aggressive and tried to scare away the rescuers. But it was successfully captured and released in the wild later.

Saidas said: I feared the roof would cave in and watched my step anxiously. We felt bad at destroying the roof of a poor family. But the cobra posed a real danger to them.”