CHENNAI: A three-foot-long snake wreaked havoc in the vicinity of a hospital after slithering into a scooter to escape a bid on its life, in Chrompet on Friday. It then took three long hours, a group of mechanics and even a ‘water wash’ to get the serpent out of the vehicle, much to the relief of everyone around.
It all started when Dinesh, a resident of Kadaperi in Tambaram, rushed to a private hospital at Chrompet where two of his friends were admitted after a road accident earlier in the day. Dinesh had parked the vehicle on the roadside before entering the hospital.
Around 11 am, a group of men were chasing a snake that entered a welding shop nearby. To escape from them, the snake slid into Dinesh’s scooter. “The snake entered the scooter from the rear side and soon disappeared. We shook the vehicle vigorously to force it out, but nothing worked,” said a local resident.
Then, a group of mechanics was called and they started removing parts of the scooter one by one. They removed the front portion of the scooter and even toppled it. They then ran the engine for several minutes hoping it would scare away the snake. But nothing seemed to move the snake, which by now, was ‘comfortably’ settled inside.
“We tried to chase it out for nearly two hours, after which we gave up. Then, someone suggested splashing water on the bike to scare the snake,” he said.
The vehicle was taken to a nearby service station and the men there sprayed water from a hose at a high speed on the scooter. After a few minutes, the snake slithered out of the scooter and slipped into a bushy area adjacent to the service station. Having suffered much for disturbing the snake, none of them, this time, bothered to chase the reptile.