Kannur: An unusual "visitor" in a polling booth in the Kannur Lok Sabha constituency, held up voting for a brief while Tuesday.

A small snake was found inside a VVPAT machine in a booth at Mayyil Kandakkai in the constitutency, which is witnessing heavy polling, triggering panic among officials and voters.

However, the reptile was soon removed and voting continued.

The Kannur constituency, where sitting MP P K Sreemathy (CPI-M-LDF), K Sudhakaran (Cong-UDF) and C K Padmanabhan (BJP-NDA) are trying their luck, is witnessing brisk polling since the morning. PTI