A technician from Kannur's Taliparamba area had a close brush with death while repairing a washing machine, which was also where a cobra had been hiding. At first, Janardhanan Kadamberi thought it was just another piece of clothing but was shocked to discover the live snake instead.
The snake was coiled around the paddles of the machine which made it look like an item of clothing, as reported by Onmanorama.
After the initial repair was done, Janardhanan tried to operate the machine. This is when he saw something rotating inside, which happened to the live cobra. The owners were then alerted who said they had no idea how the snake got inside the washing machine.
P V Babu, the house owner, said the machine had not been working for past two weeks. "We have kept the top-loading machine closed. There is no possibility of a snake entering the machine and we are still clueless," he said.
"When the serviceman put his hands to grab it, the snake reared up with its hood flared out," he added.
Upon finding the snake inside the machine, the owner called Anil Thrichambaram, a rescuer from Malabar Awareness and Rescue Centre for Wildlife (MARC). He said that the cobra was around two or three weeks old.
"This is the first time I have found a cobra inside a washing machine," he said, adding that it might have entered through the drain pipe.