A pet cat alerted its owners to a deadly cobra lurking in their kitchen in Thailand.

The feline hissed at the serpent that was hiding under a chest freezer at a rental house in Samut Prakan province on December 26.

The tenants saw the agitated moggie and checked the appliance, only to find the cobra coiled underneath.

Footage shows local snake wranglers dragging the venomous reptile out of its hiding spot. They lifted the freezer and used catch poles to seal the snake inside a sack.

Resident Sathien Khotwiang, 60, said: 'I was walking by when I heard the cat hissing, so we went to check what was wrong. The housekeeper checked the freezer and she ran screaming after seeing the cobra. I was so shocked.

'We didn't know what kind of snake it was. We only saw that the snake was black.'

The rescue team warned villagers against catching snakes themselves. They urged the locals to instead call wildlife officers, who have experience handling the dangerous reptiles.

Researchers found that 7,000 people are treated for snake bites each year in Thailand. Suchai Suteparuk from the Division of Toxicology at Chulalongkorn University reported that 30 of those die, with cobras being the biggest killer.