Image caption A bite from an Egyptian cobra can kill within seconds

A tongue-in-cheek Twitter user giving "updates" on a missing deadly Egyptian cobra now has some 154,000 followers.

The 20in (50cm) venomous snake escaped from New York City's Bronx Zoo on Friday, and is yet to be found.

In one tweet, BronxZoosCobra says: "On top of the Empire State Building! All the people look like little mice down there. Delicious little mice."

In its Twitter account, The Bronx Zoo - which has some 8,000 followers - admits it is currently "the snake's game".

The identity of the person behind BronxZoosCobra's tweets has not been revealed.

Citing the animals from the animated movie Madagascar as inspiration, the "snake" claims to be a huge fan of Tina Fey, but is not so keen on Donald Trump or those who work on Wall Street.

Listing location as "Not at the Bronx Zoo", it has "visited" tourist attractions including the High Line, the museum of Natural History and Ray's Pizza.

One of the more recent posts played on New Yorkers' fears of the scaly escapee.

"It's getting pretty cold out. I think it's probably time to crash. Oh look, an apartment window someone left open just a crack. Perfect!"

Zoo officials said on Monday they were confident the adolescent Egyptian cobra was hiding in a non-public area of the Reptile House but conceded that finding it would be difficult.

The zoo closed the reptile house "until further notice".