A wild monitor lizard climbed into a family's home and surprised a mother.

The 6ft-long reptile panicked when it saw a dog along the street and squeezed through the gaps of the metal bars of a gate in Chonburi province, Thailand, on May 10.

CCTV footage shows the lizard crawling through the property towards the garage and scaring a woman when it emerged from under their car.

It tried to escape by frantically climbing a wall and a ladder that collapsed before returning to the fence where it fled.

Mother Laksanai Arunyakornkun said: ‘My son helped me chase it away. It looked like it was scared as well while looking for a way out.'

The monitor lizard was unhurt and disappeared into the sewers.

Asian water monitor lizards normally live in canals, swamps, sewers and ponds in cities in Thailand. They feed on fish, snakes, frogs and scraps of food left by humans.

The reptiles are aggressive when threatened and have a mildly venomous bite which sometimes carries harmful bacteria. The Godzilla-like reptiles are also a protected species in the country so their population thrives.