A seven-foot-long Boa constrictor turned on its rescuer biting his hand and wrapping itself around his wrist.

The giant snake was being collected from a front garden on the Isle of Sheppey when it launched a horrifying attack on 64-year-old Ray Allibone.

Mr Allibone, 64, who runs the Swampy Wildlife Rescue, was called out after a householder found it hiding in her hedge.

He said: "It was discovered by an elderly lady in her front garden. All she said on the phone was that she didn't think it as an adder!

"When I arrived I thought it might be a toy rubber snake dumped on her lawn because it wasn't moving at all. But when I picked it up, it turned on me and got my left hand and then wrapped itself around my wrist. There was blood everywhere.

"It suddenly became very active and aggressive. It was obviously stressed. And yes, it did hurt. Snakes have lots of tiny backward-facing teeth. It was like being pricked by needles. I have puncture wounds all over the place.

"At one stage I couldn't get it off my arm and had visions of driving home with it wrapped around the steering wheel. I thought: 'Oh, you little devil. You're not as cold as I thought you were.'"

The snake, estimated to be 7ft 7in long, is now at Mr Allibone's home in Sheerness and being fed on chicks while he tries to track down its owner.

He said: "It was very hungry. No one seems to have reported it missing. It may have slipped out of a heated vivarium or it could have been dumped."

The snake was found at Halfway on Friday.

Mr Allibone added: "I don't think it had been there very long otherwise it would have been more chilled and unable to have grabbed my hand as it was quite a cold day. Either that, or I am slowing down!"

It is not the first time the zoologist has encountered snakes. He discovered a 15-ft Boa constrictor in woods in Surrey and had to collect an 18-ft Burmese python. He said: "That was so huge I couldn't even lift it."

But he chuckled when he recalled being summoned to a house in Hoo after owners reported a giant snake writhing in the grass. He said: "They had covered it with a bucket. When I took it off, I found two mating slow worms!"

The woman who found the Boa constrictor has not been named.

Mr Allibone said: "She is in her 70s or 80s. She was putting rubbish into her wheelie bin when she noticed some agitated magpies and then spotted the snake hiding next to her hedge. She seemed to take it all very calmly."

Of his wounds he admitted: "It does sting a bit but the bleeding has stopped. It is a bit sore and bruised but nothing to worry about. I've had worse."

He recently hit out at dog-owners not keeping their pets on a lead after a baby swan was mauled to death at a beauty spot. For more details see his Swampys Wildlife Rescue Facebook page.

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