A seven-foot king cobra escaped from a zoo in Sweden, but has since returned to its place of its own accord, to the relief of the authorities.

Jonas Wahlström, chief executive of the Skansen Aquarium, told Swedish media: "We had named the cobra Houdini. After being missing for several days, it has come back to its terrarium (where the snake is kept)."

The venomous snake's official name is Sir Vass. On 22 October it escaped through a light fitting above its glass enclosure in the aquarium, which is part of the zoo.

After the dangerous snake went missing, it was searched for with an X-ray machine. Houdini was in fact in an enclosed space between two walls nearby.

Holes were made in the wall where the snake was hiding, but it could not be seen even with the X-ray camera. Later the cobra returned to the terrarium of its own will.

The authorities there said that if the snake had got out, it could not have survived the cold weather.

The king cobra is highly venomous. It grows up to 18 feet long and is found in India, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Citing Khaleej Times.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.