A family in Bhubaneswar, India, discovered a monitor lizard trapped in their bathroom drain on June 21.

Volunteers from the Snake Helpline, Ashis Behera and Ansuman Mallik, arrived and cut the drain pipe to free the animal after finding it entangled in a metal sieve, which they carefully removed.

The lizard was unharmed and released back into its natural habitat.

A family in Bhubaneswar in eastern India found a monitor lizard trapped in the drain of their bathroom on 21 June. The lizard had somehow entered the bathroom and got stuck while trying to escape through the drain.

Two volunteers from the Snake Helpline, Ashis Behera and Ansuman Mallik, went to the spot and cut part of the drain pipe to free the reptile. When they lifted the lizard it came out with the metal sieve tightly wrapped around its trunk.

They cut through the sieve with a cutter and freed the lizard. As it was not injured they released it in a natural habitat. Subhendu Mallik, General Secretary of Snake Helpline, said: "The three-feet Bengal monitor lizard survived a traumatic experience. It had squeezed i's upper body through the sieve but had got stuck at the midway. It was lucky and got rescued."