This is the moment officers caught a large monitor lizard hiding in a family's ceiling in Thailand.

The rescue workers arrived at resident Kittisak Chompoowang-ar-yu's home in Ayutthaya province after she reported seeing the reptile scurrying along the panels on November 7.

Footage shows the volunteers shining a flashlight in the dark space to locate the beast. After pinpointing its hiding spot, they removed the boards and reached inside to catch the creature.

One of the men managed to grab its tail, but it ran away and fell through a hole. The cornered lizard then tried to flee, but rescuers foiled its escape.

They covered its face with a piece of cloth and placed it inside a sack to be released into its natural habitat.

Kittisak said: 'I heard something moving on the ceiling before the boards fell down to the ground.

'I looked up and saw a monitor lizard so I rushed to call the officers to come and help.

'The creature probably came from the back of my home where there is a forest and swamps.'