Man finds python in toilet of his Grenoble apartment

The man, who is in his fifties and lives in the historic Grenoble square of Place Sainte-Claire, was stunned to see the snake, and immediately called the emergency services.

The fire service enlisted their specialist team, who used gloves, overalls and special snake-handling tongs, to capture the animal safely, and later sent it to the Meylan veterinary clinic for further care (Isère).

Snakes form part of the emergency service’s official “new pet animal” category (les nouveaux animaux de compagnie (NAC)), and it was this specialist team that was able to deal with the reptile safely.

The snake has since died, however, and was found to have ingested too many chemical cleaning products - almost certainly in the toilet room of the man’s house - before being discovered.

According to the ongoing investigation into how the reptile came to be in the man’s flat, it is thought to have come in through the pipes from the apartment below.

No-one has yet come forward to claim the animal as their own officially, but local news source France Bleu reported that “according to their information”, an inhabitant of Place Sainte-Claire complained a month ago about the disappearance of her pet snake.