A 50-year-old teacher got the shock of her life when a 60kg reticulated python crashed through her toilet.
A teacher’s ordinary day turned into a terrifying ordeal when a massive reticulated python weighing approximately 60 kilograms came crashing through her bathroom ceiling.
Speaking to Kosmo, Nor Hayati Md. Rajab, 50, never imagined she would encounter a snake of such enormous size lurking above her toilet at her home in Taman Bandar Baru PKNK, Sungai Petani, Kedah.
“I didn’t expect there would be a snake that big above the toilet ceiling. It was so huge I screamed ‘anaconda,'” she recalled when contacted by the Malay daily recently.
The incident unfolded around 4pm last Wednesday (November 12) when Nor Hayati’s 15-year-old daughter returned home from school and noticed something alarming – the bathroom ceiling had partially collapsed.
Frightened by the damage, the teenager immediately contacted her mother, who was attending a meeting at the time, sending photographs of the broken ceiling panels.
“I was in a meeting when my daughter sent pictures of the fallen ceiling. As soon as I arrived home, I immediately inspected the toilet ceiling,” Nor Hayati explained.
Upon closer examination, something caught her eye in the damaged section.
“I saw what looked like batik fabric through the broken ceiling. I was puzzled about how batik cloth could be up there,” she said.
It wasn’t until her daughter used her phone camera to zoom in on the area that the shocking truth became clear – what appeared to be patterned fabric was actually the distinctive markings of a massive python’s body.
Realizing the gravity of the situation, Nor Hayati immediately contacted emergency services. A team from the Malaysian Civil Defence Force (APM) arrived to handle the dangerous reptile.
The moment of extraction proved even more startling than the initial discovery.
“When the reticulated python was pulled down and fell from the ceiling, I was genuinely shocked because of its enormous size. I thought it was just a regular snake – I’d never seen a snake that large right in front of my eyes,” she said.
The APM team successfully captured the five-metre-long python, which weighed an estimated 60 kilograms. According to APM records, the emergency call was received at 4.01pm on Wednesday.
Nor Hayati believes she’s pieced together how the massive reptile entered her home. She suspects it used a soursop tree (pokok durian belanda) located behind her house as an access point to the ceiling space.
“Two days before the incident, two of my flower pots were knocked over. It probably happened when the snake was climbing that tree,” she explained.
The clues now made sense – the toppled plants were likely the python’s first sign of presence before it found its way into the ceiling cavity.
The traumatic experience has left a lasting impact on Nor Hayati and her two children, who now approach their bathroom with heightened caution.
“We’re still haunted by the incident and now check the surrounding area first before entering the toilet,” she admitted.
This marked the first time a snake had invaded her home, though she noted that a swampy area behind the property could explain the reptile’s presence in the neighbourhood.
“There’s a swamp area behind my house – it probably came from there. I had to thoroughly clean the floor and carpets because of the fishy smell it left behind,” she said.
Reticulated pythons are among Southeast Asia’s largest snake species and are known to seek shelter in roof spaces, especially during monsoon seasons or when hunting for prey such as rats and other small mammals commonly found in residential areas.
While generally non-venomous and not typically aggressive toward humans unless threatened, their size makes them potentially dangerous, particularly in confined spaces.
