A watchful pet cat saved its owners from harm after it alerted them to a deadly cobra that had crept into their home in Thailand.

The brown Persian cat found the venomous serpent hiding in a mop bucket in owner Noppamas Phromchan's house in Saraburi province on December 6.

Noppamas, 41, had been getting dressed when she noticed the feline curiously staring at the mop bucket.

As she put on her clothes and prepared to leave, she saw that the cat was still transfixed by the seemingly innocuous object in the laundry room.

When the fur mum came closer to take a look, she was terrified to discover a snake lying inside the bucket. It reared its head and hissed at her.

In shock, she hurriedly closed the lid and weighed it down to trap the violent cobra inside while calling rescuers for help.

The officers later arrived and fished out the reptile, which had coiled itself around the bucket's spin basket.

The black cobra flared its hood and tried to lunge at its captors, but they held it in place with a hook. It was then sealed inside a sack to be released into nature.

A relieved Noppamas said: 'I thought the cat was just playing with a lizard. I didn't realise a cobra had already entered the house.

'It hid in the laundry area, where everyone has to pass to reach the bathroom. It's a good thing this cat was standing guard before anyone could get hurt because there are children and old people in this house.'

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 killer.