A snake put a mesmerising display rolling over and showing off its brightly-coloured scales.

The Laotian wolf snake was spotted coiled outside a Buddhist temple after a religious ceremony was held in Nakhon Phanom province, Thailand, on June 10.

But instead of slithering away from a temple-goer who saw it, the yellow and black-banded serpent did a bizarre dance.

Footage shows the creature flashing its white belly and rolling over to alternately expose its vibrant scales in an astonishing play of colours on the dirt ground.

Temple-goer Uraiwan Arjsattoo said: ‘That day, we did a ceremony to offer food and flowers to the king of snakes Nagas. Then out of nowhere, there was a snake in the area we used for worshipping.'

The creature continued with its flashing of colours for about a minute before leaving the compound and the confused woman behind.

Superstitious Uraiwan added: ‘The snake visited us because of the ceremony. It gave us a thank you dance because it was happy with our offerings.'

The creature was believed to have been playing dead as a defence strategy from feeling threatened by the temple visitors. Most snakes do this as predators prefer live prey.

A Laotian wolf snake is a nonvenomous snake endemic to Asia with a white belly and dark and yellow dorsal crossbands.