A Taiwanese man became a sitting target for a snake, which bit his penis as sat on the toilet at his rural home.

"As soon as he sat down, he suddenly felt a knife-like pain and reacted instinctively by standing up," the China Times reported on Monday. "When he looked down, he saw the big snake."

The 51-year-old man, from Nantou County, was under medical care with minor injuries, a director at Puli Christian Hospital said.

"As soon as he has passed the risk of infection, he can go," the director, who declined to be named, said.

Local television images showed the black and yellow reptile, reportedly a species of rat snake, being uncoiled and plucked slowly from the toilet bowl.

Snakes regularly enter rural homes in Taiwan and other sub-tropical regions of Asia.