Alamy
A mum of a three-year-old boy had the shock of her life when she looked in his wardrobe – to find a box of seven deadly snakes.
Donna Sim's son Kyle Cumming had found the snake eggs in his garden in Townsville in Queensland, Australia and had used a takeaway container to keep them in.
But a few weeks later, Donna opened the wardrobe to discover the eggs had hatched – and were slithering away in the box.
But her discovery was a blessing – for the reptiles were the world's deadliest eastern brown snakes, and if Kyle had found them before his mum did, the consequences don't bear thinking about.
"I was pretty shocked, particularly because I don't like snakes," Donna told the Townsville Bulletin.
The family took the snakes to a local sanctuary where they were released back into the wild.
"He is extremely lucky that his mother found them before he opened up the container and played with them," said North Queensland Wildlife Care reptile co-ordinator Trish Prendergast.
"Otherwise he may not be with us today."
The eastern brown snake is widely considered the second most venomous snake in the world, behind the inland taipan. They are common in Australia and are responsible for a majority of lethal snake bites recorded in the country.