They resorted to placing bricks on lavatory lids after the snake put in several surprise appearances. Now the flat-owners have been vindicated: one brave resident trapped the giant reptile during a night-time confrontation in his bathroom. He managed to coax the snake, named Keith, into a bin, ending a two-month reign of terror at the flats in West Didsbury, Manchester.

Keith had been living in the flats’ sewage pipes and is thought to have been abandoned by his owner, evicted for owing £5,500 in rent. The possibility that the snake was left on purpose in revenge for the eviction has not been ruled out.

Although the snake was spotted several times, no one had had the courage to try to catch it. Some treated the “sightings” with suspicion.

Firecrews were called when a bleary-eyed resident went to the lavatory in the middle of the night — and came face-to-face with the snake. They used fibre-optic equipment to check the drains and plumbing but found no trace of the reptile.

However, another resident was confronted by the snake when he found it on his bathroom floor on Saturday evening. The 19-year-old man put a bin on its side and the snake crawled inside. He then placed a lid on the bin and called the RSPCA.

David Fitzgerald, who owns the flats, said: “I think he was quite surprised to see the snake there looking back at him. He raced down to the garden and got a concrete block, which he used to cover the toilet seat.”

Mr Fitzgerald confirmed that a former resident, who was forced out in August for rent arrears, had owned a 12-year-old snake. An RSPCA spokesman said that it was not uncommon for smaller snakes to be found in household sewage pipes, but the discovery of a 10ft boa constrictor was “quite out of the ordinary”.

Jimmy Ratcliff, the society’s regional exotic animals co-ordinator, said: “The snake appears to have been living quite happily in the sewage system of the flats. It would have no problem travelling up and down the waste pipe and has probably been eating rats from the sewer.”

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