Python shock for trucker at stop on A59

8:49am Wednesday 11th October 2006

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A LORRY driver who stopped for a comfort break in a lay-by near York got the shock of his life when a huge snake came slithering out of undergrowth.

The startled trucker watched in horror as the 8ft-long python weaved its way towards his feet after he nipped behind some bushes, off the A59, on Friday.

He called police who alerted RSPCA staff from York to come and collect the constrictor snake, which had climbed up a nearby tree.

Animal collection officer Helen Martindale said: "The python had wrapped itself around one the branches of the tree and was sitting there staring at us.

"It was much bigger than any snakes I've dealt with before. Occasionally, we've had corn snakes that have escaped, but nothing like this.

"The lorry driver said he got the shock of his life when he saw it crawling out of the bushes."

Helen and her colleague, Keira Wynne, used a long pole with a net to capture the snake and haul it out of the tree.

"We think the python could be a pet that has escaped," said Helen.

"But there are no houses near where it was found. So it must have crawled a long way.

"At least this python didn't end up in someone's house - because we get a few cases where snakes escape and make their way into a neighbour's."

But officers are also considering the possibility that someone abandoned the python.

The lay-by where it was found is on the A59, just past Green Hammerton, at Allerton Grange.

The snake was put in a box and taken to a sanctuary run by a man at his home in Knaresborough.

Now the RSPCA is appealing to anyone who knows where the python came from to phone them at the York animal centre, in Landing Lane, on 0870 555999.

Python is the name for non-venomous constrictor snakes of the boa family, which are found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, Australia and the South Pacific islands.

They climb and swim expertly, kill birds and mammals by squeezing them in their coils, lay eggs, and some may grow up to 30 feet long.