A family has been left terrified after a snake slithered across their kitchen floor - before disappearing. Clare Farrell, 41, said it went behind her family's dishwasher and hasn't been seen since.
They were getting ready for dinner when the snake, which was about 3ft long and believed to be a corn snake, suddenly moved across the floor on Saturday evening. The snake, which isn't venomous be can bite, was thought to have escaped from a nearby property, reports the M.E.N.
Clare said the snake had spooked her, her four children and her mum, 74, who lived in an adjoining flat to the family's home. Clare lives there with daughter Isabelle, 14-year-old twins Sammy and Freya, James, aged eight and seven-month old baby daughter Sienna.
She said: "I was making dinner and I've seen it on the floor. At first I thought my son Sammy was playing a prank. Then I saw it moving and it's gone under the cupboards. We can't find it. It's hiding."
She added: "I saw it under the cupboard. It was looking at us. It was under the dishwasher. We''ve had the dishwasher out but we just can't find it. We don't know where it's gone."
Mobile phone footage captured the snake slowly moving under the cupboards as the children scream and Sammy shouts: "It's a snake. It's f***ing moving. It's a snake."
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On its website the RSPCA says corn snakes aren't venomous, but can bite. They are popular as pets and can grow up to 150cm long. They eat mice, quails and rats, according to the website.
In an effort to establish whether the snake remains at their home in Stretford, Manchester, the family placed a dead mouse on the kitchen floor and filmed it overnight with an iPad, but the mouse was untouched in the morning.
Clare told the M.E.N: "I don't know where it is. I don't know whether it's gone behind the walls or not. The kids are frightened. Every time I walk in the kitchen I'm on tenterhooks. I don't know whether it's gone or its still here.
"I'm not too bad but the kids haven't been sleeping. I just want to find it and get rid of it. Supposedly it's a corn snake. They have a bite but it's not venomous. I've also got a dog and two cats and I've been trying to get them away."
Clare said at first she her son had left a 'really realistic' toy snake as a joke. "I nearly picked it up," she said.
Clare said she had been contacted by two different people from her area, who had said their snake was missing and it may be theirs.
She went on: "Sammy isn't fazed, but the girls are really scared and the eight-year-old is scared too."
