From far away, this could be one of those big Haribo snakes sold at pick-and-mix stalls at funfairs. Alas it is not.

Oliver Angove walked into the kitchen of his home in Balham, south west London, only to hear the disturbing sound of hissing.

Upon closer inspection, there it was – a real-life snake in his house – peeking from under the washing machine.

He could not believe his eyes when her head popped out, then unhinging its jaws.

Oliver later found out the reptile, named Cecilia, had crawled into his home after escaping from his neighbour’s property.

In fact, this was an American corn snake that was being kept as a pet at a home a few doors down the road.

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She has slithered through the pipework and floorboards to get to his home.

Oliver managed to catch the escape artist and was able to return her back to her relieved owner.

The stunned resident said: ‘It was definitely not something I expected to see.’

To his luck, Cecilia was only small – after all, the species can grow to some 5.9ft.

Metro.co.uk has previously reported on the escape of an 18ft long python, who tried to break into a home in Eastleigh, near Southampton.

This prompted calls to urgently ban snakes as pets in the UK, but a petition at the time was only signed by a little more than 1,000 people.

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