This is the heart-stopping moment snake wranglers caught a king cobra at a worker's camp in Thailand.

The specialists squared off with the venomous reptile after it was spotted mating with another cobra inside a tent in Trat province on April 2.

Footage shows the rescue volunteers using snake poles as they tried to drag the 10ft female serpent from under a mattress. The spooked beast then slipped outside, but was quickly pinned down by more officers waiting next to the tent.

The fearless snake catchers grabbed the spitting beast with bare hands before sealing it in a sack to be released into the wilderness.

Worker Mali Nasingkhan, 59, said she had entered the tent at the rubber plantation to wind down for the day when she saw the two cobras entwined and writhing on the ground just a few feet away from her.

She said: 'I leapt back from shock because there was not one but two of them near me. My son-in-law heard my screams and he tried to shoot the cobras with a harpoon but they managed to escape. One of them is still missing.'

The snake wranglers urged the locals to be vigilant for the other cobra believed to still be lurking near the camp.

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.