Snake in sex education class

A group of teenagers got a shock when a 2ft long snake slithered its way into their classroom during a sex education lesson.

The pupils were about to begin the class at a learning centre in Leicester when they were confronted by the serpent intruder.

It had crawled along a ventilation duct before wrapping around a painting on the wall, where an eagle-eyed student spotted it.

Jack Martins, 18, at first assumed it was a toy - but got a nasty surprise when he took a closer look.

He said: “I went to grab it and it jolted its head back which threw me backwards and I hit one of the tutors.

“I’ve had four snakes as pets before so I wasn’t scared but it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.”

Fellow classmate Lauren Postles, 19, said: “I didn’t even see it, I just heard the word ‘snake’ and I freaked.

“I was a whole classroom away but that felt too close. I had to go upstairs to the office with a friend and I just cried.”

RSPCA officials were called to the Twenty Twenty education centre and identified it as a non-venomous corn snake.

Centre manager Sarah Ford said: “It certainly livened up the day. “We had no idea if it was poisonous or not so it was quite scary, but some of the class seemed to love it - and obviously others didn’t.

“I was just thinking health and safety and worrying about someone being bitten. I was hoping nothing would go wrong.”

A spokeswoman for the RSPCA said: “The snake is currently being cared for at a specialist facility.”