King cobras smuggled for meat

May 30, 2011 04:10 pm | Updated April 21, 2017 06:02 pm IST - HANOI, Vietnam

Railway officials have discovered highly venomous king cobras in bags under a seat on a train in Vietnam. Railroad official Pham Quynh says passengers were terrified when four cloth bags containing the writhing cobras were spotted Friday. The snakes were alive but had their mouths stitched shut. Quynh says the exact number of snakes was unclear but the bags weighed 100 pounds (45 kilograms). Security staff removed the cobras, which were most-likely destined for restaurants in Hanoi. Their owner apparently escaped in the chaos. Snake meat is considered a delicacy in Vietnam, but cobras are protected by law. Quynh says the cobras were given to forest rangers who released them into the wild Saturday after no one claimed them.

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