"Showed me teeth"

Snake seeks refuge in residential building in the middle of Vienna

(Bild: „Krone“-Leserreporter)

A Viennese man had an extremely unusual encounter on Sunday afternoon in the middle of Vienna's Penzing district: an Aesculapian snake suddenly wriggled out from under a car and moved straight towards a residential building. The shocked 36-year-old alerted the fire department. The emergency services caught the animal.

The animal wriggled its way from the parked car to an apartment building in Jenullgasse. There it crawled through the front gate directly into the stairwell. "The snake then hid again by the front door, and when I approached it, it was already showing me its teeth," Filip D. reports on his experience on Sunday afternoon.

(Bild: „Krone“-Leserreporter)

(Bild: „Krone“-Leserreporter)

(Bild: „Krone“-Leserreporter)

The shocked Viennese then alerted the fire department. "The emergency services were wearing protective suits and gloves, so they were able to catch the animal quickly," says the 36-year-old. Christian Feiler, spokesman for the professional fire department, explains: "Our so-called snake catching set was used. This consists of a long pole with a gripping finger. This was used to carefully catch the snake and put it in a box."

(Bild: „Krone“-Leserreporter)

Snake abandoned in the forest
The emergency services removed the Aesculapian snake, which was over one meter long, and released it in the forest on the border with Lower Austria. 

The Aesculapian snake is the only native species that can grow up to two meters long. It is even one of the largest snake species in Europe. In Austria, the non-poisonous animals inhabit all federal states - except Vorarlberg and Tyrol.