This is the terrifying moment a driver found a 15ft-long King Cobra hiding under his car bonnet.<br /><br />Thaichai Kongnimit, 55, parked the blue Nissan outside his home in Surat Thani province, Thailand, on Wednesday night. <br /><br />But when he went to drive to the market the next morning he heard a spine-chilling hissing sound coming from inside the engine.<br /><br />Thaichai - concerned there was a mechanical problem - opened the bonnet and recoiled in horror when he saw the deadly serpent staring up at him, poised to strike with its menacing hood spread. <br /><br />The father-of-three raced back inside his house to call the emergency services who sent the region's best snake catcher to snare the beast. <br /><br />Brave rescuer Tanawat Num took just two minutes to catch the enraged king cobra and put it inside a sack to be released back into the wild.<br /><br />Relieved Thaichai said: ''The cobra could have killed me. I opened the bonnet to look down into the engine and I was about 30cm from its face.''<br /><br />Rescue worker Tanawat said: ''It is rare that we see a King Cobra this big. It was between four and five metres long. The snake didn't fight though so we could catch it easily.''<br /><br />The cobra was stretched out and measured before being released back into nearby jungle.
