Police have been forced to pursue a 12-foot-long python prowling the streets of the West Midlands.
The yellow snake was spotted in Harwood Street, West Bromwich, around 1.30am on Tuesday September 5.
As these pictures show, it took three officers from West Midlands Police to detain the slippery serpent fugitive as it made its way along a road at night.
The RSPCA were not on hand, so the police took the large scaly detainee to a local veterinary hospital where it was cared for overnight.
The yellow Burmese python is a non-venomous constrictor snake native to Southeast Asia, exceptional specimens have been known to reach 23 feet in length and weigh more than 75kg.
They are legal to keep as pets in the UK and can live for 20 years or more in captivity. The cold-blooded reptiles need warn tropical conditions and could not survive for long outside in Britain.
In a statement West Midlands Police said: “Our officers are not easily rattled when it comes to responding to unusual calls as we deal with a huge variety of incidents.
“Just after 1.30am this morning (September 5) we received a call from a member of the public that a 12 foot yellow python was slithering on Harwood Street, West Bromwich.
“While RSPCA colleagues would usually handle this situation they were not able to attend due to the time of the call so some of our brave response officers stepped in.”
The statement added the snake was safely rescued and put into a police van “without too many slips and slides”.
It continued: “The snake was then transferred to a nearby veterinary hospital for overnight care.”
The bizarre animal encounter prompted scores of witty responses when police posted photos of the event on X, formerly known as Twitter.
One person commented: “Great work on detaining the sssussssspect.”
Someone else wondered if the culprit had any previous convictions, posting: “Slippery customer right there, wonder if they’ve got previous hissstory.”
Another amusingly added that the encounter could have been sparked by urban expansion into the “rainforest of the West Midlands”, noting: “This will happen as long as the West Midlands conurbation keeps expanding into the surrounding tropical rainforest habitat.”
