PRETORIA, South Africa, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- A resident of an apartment building in South Africa captured video of a snake handler attempting to remove a venomous cobra from a toilet bowl.

A video posted to YouTube by Anton Meijer shows snake wrangler Barry Greenshields using a catch pole to lift the front end of a giant snouted cobra out of a resident's toilet bowl in the Glenletta Courts apartment block in the Lynnwood Glen area of Pretoria.


The handler attempted to remove the 8-foot snake from the toilet, but the serpent kept its grip on something and was able to flee down the toilet drain.

Residents said the snake has yet to reemerge since going back into the toilet last week, and they fear it could still be somewhere in the building's pipes.

"We have put cameras in the pipes to look for it. Residents are still worried and some of them are feeling like if it comes up they want to kill it which is something I don't want. I hope he has left through the pipes," Greenshields told News24.