Huge snake found coiled around boiler in London home

Python ‘made himself comfortable’ before it was escorted to local police station

Reticulated python can suffocate its prey (Getty iStock)

A north London homeowner was “startled” to discover a huge python coiled around the top of the boiler.

After finding a brown and gold snake had somehow got inside the Islington home, the resident called the police.

Later identified as a reticulated python, the reptile was collected by officers and “escorted” to the local station before being handed over to animal welfare specialists with the RSPCA.

Reticulated pythons are the longest snakes in the world, growing up to nine metres in length in the wild. They are not venomous but kill their prey by squeezing and suffocating them.

They mainly eat mammals and birds, but can eat animals as large as pigs or deer.

Police made an appeal for the python’s owner to come forward with a message on the MPS Islington Twitter account: “Is anyone missing a large snake?

“We have one at Islington Police Station that was found by a rather startled member of the public. He had made himself comfortable on top of their boiler.”

The local station joked that the python had been “releassssssed without charged”.

If anyone has information about the snake's rightful home, they can call police on 101 quoting CAD 198 / 31JUL19.