体長４ｍのキングコブラ、住宅地の下水管で捕獲　タイ

【バンコクＡＦＰ＝時事】タイ南部の住宅地にある下水管で、体長4メートル超、重さ15キロのキングコブラが見つかり、救助団体が1時間かけて捕獲した。同団体が15日、明らかにした。これまでに捕獲した中で3番目に大きいという。（写真はタイ・クラビで、下水管に出没し捕獲された体長4メートルのキングコブラ。地元救助団体提供）
　捕獲作業を撮影した動画には、世界最長の毒ヘビであるキングコブラを追い掛け、男性隊員１人が果敢にも暗く狭い下水管の中へ入っていく様子が捉えられている。
　コブラは水の中で暴れ、下水管の中に何度か逃げ戻ろうとしたものの、最終的に尾をつかまれ、下水管から引き上げられた。
　救助団体は１３日、キングコブラが出没した集合住宅の警備員から通報を受け、隊員７人を現場に派遣。隊員の話によると、この住宅地一帯はかつてジャングルだったという。
　捕獲されたキングコブラは、後に野生に戻された。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2019/10/16-08:57）

A feisty four-metre (13-foot) king cobra was pulled from a sewer in southern Thailand in an hour-long operation, a rescue foundation said Tuesday, describing the reptile as one of the largest they had ever captured.
Footage of the daring capture showed a man chasing the cobra -- the world's longest venomous snake -- into a dark and cramped drainage pipe.
The cobra splashed around in water and tried to slither back into the pipe, but was pulled out by the tail after multiple attempts.
A security guard on the housing estate where it was found first alerted the rescue group on Sunday.
Seven rescue workers, including me, went there, said Kritkamon Kanghae, 26, adding that the estate was built on a plot that was once jungle.
Kritkamon said the snake was more than four metres long, weighed 15 kilos (33 pounds), and was the third-largest they had found.
It was later released into the wild.
Thailand is teeming with reptiles, and several species of cobra are native to the southeast Asian country.
References to the deadly snake fill folklore.
The main international airport was built on an area that used to be called Cobra's Swamp.
Snakes have increasingly become a headache for residents in the Thai capital, where the fire department is sent out to respond to calls from alarmed residents.
Authorities are reluctant to get rid of the reptiles because they help to control a rat population that could otherwise threaten crops and food stocks.
King cobras, however, mainly feed on other snakes -- particularly the rat snake.