Toilet snake

A woman nearly did the proverbial when she discovered a snake had been living in her bathroom for six months.

The 70 centimetre long snake had escaped through a window from a flat above and slithered into Anika Bauer's apartment in Allschwil, Switzerland.

The 28-year-old discovered her slippery flat mate as she went to use the toilet and called the police, who discovered it hiding in a wall cavity behind the loo.

It turns out the reptile - a non-poisonous corn snake - had been missing from the flat above, where it was being kept illegally, since the beginning of the year.

Bauer said: "It was a good job I was in the bathroom already as when I saw the snake I almost peed myself. Thankfully it has been released in a nearby wildlife area where it belongs."