A two-metre-long boa constrictor escaped its enclosure to shock neighbours by sunbathing in the middle of a residential road.

Video footage shows the 'grumpy' snake lying in the road as baffled residents watch on.

The boa constrictor, which can grow up to three metres in length, is more commonly associated with the Amazon rainforest of South America than the sleepy suburbs of the town of Sevenoaks, Kent, where it was found.

Police were called to the scene but had no idea how to deal with the huge reptile - who was eventually taken by reptile charity the National Centre for Reptile Welfare (NCRW).

Boa constrictors are non-venomous snakes and kill their prey - animals as large as monkeys and pigs - by strangling or constricting them until they suffocate, before swallowing them whole.

Chris Newman, the director of the self-funded NCRW charity, based in Hadlow College in Kent, said he received a request for help from police at around 4pm on Saturday.

The 64-year-old reptile enthusiast, who caught his first snake when he was just five years old, said: "We got a call at about four o'clock from police, saying there was a snake in the road. "

"They'd identified it as a python, but it was actually a boa constrictor. "

"There were a number of people watching the snake, which had become quite distressed after being sat on the hot tarmac of the road for around half an hour. "

"We believe it came from a house nearby who keeps snakes but who was on holiday at the time. "

"We brought it back to the centre and will keep it here for three weeks to see if someone collects it and, if not, we'll look to find it a new home."

"It was just under two metres long. It was a very posh area, so I think the neighbours were all a little bit surprised."

Kent Police officer Suzy McDonnell posted a screenshot of Mr Newman's video on her Twitter account, saying: "Not your average late turn call..."

"Identified as a boa [constrictor]. What an upset little boy he was, in the middle of the road."

Father-of-four Mr Newman added that though the NCRW, which covers the whole of the UK, gets a few callouts a week, it is rare they get called to deal with snakes as big as this.

The charity, founded in 2018, takes in around two-and-a-half thousand reptiles each year.

"Most of them are animals which people have surrendered," Mr Newman, who has worked with reptiles for nearly half a century, explained. "

"They can no longer look after them. "

"But we also get around four reptiles found in the wild each year."