A mother taking photos of her two-year-old was left shocked after she noticed one of the world’s deadliest snakes slithering inches past her daughter’s leg.

Bianca Dickinson, from Victoria, Australia, assumed it was a piece of bark, but then she saw it move.

“The photo still makes me have heart failure,” Ms Dickinson, who was doing the photo shoot at the end of the family driveway, told The Daily Mail.

She was desperate to snatch her daughter Molly away, but was wary of startling the snake. “I think because I stayed still, she then stayed still and it literally just kept slithering past.”

Mother captures photo of her two-year-old daughter smiling next to Australias second deadliest snake (Caters)

After snatching Molly, her other children asked her to check the photos to see if she had captured the moment.

Ms Dickinson revealed Molly was “completely oblivious” to the snake. “Me on the other hand, I didn’t sleep last night and I have just eaten for the first time since it happened,” she said.