A resident of a village near Puri in eastern India, Jadumani Mohanty, woke up in the middle of the night on May 1, after feeling an unusual cold object with his legs.

Half asleep, he reached out to the strange object with his hand and was met with a ‘hiss’ sound. He instinctively leapt out and put the lights on and was greeted with a terrifying spectacle of a huge cobra on his bed.

The highly venomous snake, which was trapped inside the mosquito net, desperately struggled to find a way out.

A terrified Jadumani raised his family, called Snake Helpline, and a volunteer, Susant Behera, went to the spot and rescued the four-feet-long cobra.

Subhendu Mallik, General Secretary of Snake Helpline said, "Jadumani was extremely lucky to survive. If he had not woken up on time, the cobra may have bitten him feeling threatened by his movements. The snake might have slipped inside the mosquito net following the smell of a rodent and got trapped inside."

Susant said: "The cobra had struggled to come out of the mosquito net. The tip of its mouth was bruised as it had repeatedly struck at the mosquito net to find a way out ".

The snake was released in a natural habitat in the early morning away from the village.