Uninvited guest: The APM members subduing the king cobra at the village house.
BALING: It is common for snakes to encroach into shady human dwellings to get away from the heat, and a 4m-long king cobra did just that at a kampung house in Pekan Pulai here.
The reptile, weighing 10kg, was tackled in 25 minutes by three female Civil Defence Force (APM) members at Jalan Kampung Paya.
Baling district Civil Defence officer Lt Mohd Faizol Abd Aziz said his team received a call that the snake was seen behind the house just as the family was about to break their fast at 6.40pm on Thursday.
“The snake was first seen at the fence before it slithered towards a storage rack at the house, where it hid there,” he said in a statement yesterday.
He commended the team for capturing the snake without any untoward incident, despite having limited equipment due to a recent fire at the Baling Civil Defence office.
The captured king cobra was later released at a safe area, away from human settlements.
The species feeds mainly on other snakes and it is common to find it in Malaysia.
Its venom contains a neurotoxin that paralyses its victims. With only 7ml, the venom can kill 20 people or an elephant.
