An exhausted husband came home from work only to find that a cobra had crept into his house in Thailand.

Srisuwan Bunpira, 44, was unwinding from a long day when he was jolted by the sight of a deadly serpent lying next to a plastic bag in his home in Chon Buri province on December 10.

He called a rescue team to remove the creature from the premises.

Firefighters arrived soon after, and used a snare pole to subdue the cobra, which angrily reared its head and flared its hood at the specialists. It took 20 minutes before the snake was finally caught and sealed in a fertiliser sack.

Fireman Winas Chuaykwamdi, 50, said: ‘Residents should not attempt to catch any kind of snakes by themselves, whether venomous or not. We have specialists to take care of those creatures. 

'If you are bitten by a venomous snake like this cobra, you could die.' 

Srisuwan said: ‘I thought of resting when I return home but I saw the snake. It started hissing at me. I was terrified.' 

The team took the snake away to be released into its natural habitat.

Researchers found that 7,000 people are treated for snake bites each year in Thailand. Suchai Suteparuk from the Division of Toxicology at Chulalongkorn University reported that 30 of those die, with cobras being the biggest killed.