AN Ipswich dad has today told of his terror when he came face-to-face with his worst fear - a 4ft snake.

AN Ipswich dad has today told of his terror when he came face-to-face with his worst fear - a 4ft snake.

Anderson Thompson, 37, was petrified when he discovered the scaly serpent in the kitchen of his top floor flat in Samuel Court.

Thankfully the RSPCA came to his rescue and captured the creature, but not before Mr Thompson, who is about to embark on a science degree at University Campus Suffolk, had spent several nervous hours keeping watch on the exotic Corn snake.

“I was frightened that it was in my flat because I'm scared of snakes,” Mr Thompson said.

“I saw it when I came in the door. I heard a rustling sound and could see the tail. At first I thought it was a toy I'd lost but as I stood there looking it started to move.”

When the RSPCA officer arrived Mr Thompson could not initially see where the snake had got to in the kitchen, but after a while the pair found that the snake had shed its skin and crawled into the back of his cooker where it was curled up.

At this point it became clear the cooker would have to be removed and Mr Thompson contacted Ipswich Borough Council, which owns his home, to ask for help.

He said: “We needed to unearth and cut off the power to the cooker which a council electrician needed to do because it is a council property.

“They refused to do that and told me to pay to get out a private electrician to do the work - they said it was nothing to do with them.”

A spokesman for the council said this incident was the first of its type that the borough had had to deal with.

“We are sorry to hear about Mr Thompson's ordeal and will be investigating what happened,” he said.

Katie Geary, spokeswoman for the RSPCA, said: “We found that the snake had got itself wedged between the grill and back of the cooker and we had to take it apart to free the snake from the appliance.

“We think it had been there for sometime because it had shed its skin.

“Corn snakes can come up through pipes and floorboards. It is quite a common occurrence.

“It could be that someone's been keeping it and it has managed to escape. Snakes can be slippery customers.

“It is absolutely the right thing to do to call us because you can never tell what the snake is. You can't tell if it will be venomous and if it is it can be quite nasty.

“Hopefully someone has lost the snake and if they contact us we can reunite them.”

Do you think the snake could be yours? Contact the RSPCA on 0300 1234 999.

Have you come face-to-face with your worst fear? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk.

Corn snakes

The Corn snake is a North American species of rat snake.

Its name comes from the maize-like pattern on their skin that resembles corn.

Corn snakes are non-venomous.

Corn snakes have a diet primarily consisting of rodents which they kill by constriction.

They are popular as pets because of their docile nature and reluctance to bite.

In captivity they usually live for 20 to 25 years.

SOURCE: Wikipedia