Staff at a sports centre in Amersfoort had the fright of their lives when they discovered a  2.5 metre long cobra at the back of the building.

The cobra, whose venom can be lethal to humans, may have escaped from a terrarium or could have been dumped there. ‘That is a serious offence because the animal is dangerous and the police have been informed’, a spokesman for the animal ambulance service told broadcaster RTV Utrecht.

‘We like to have a joke and I didn’t believe it at first when staff told me about the snake,’ Dennis Verweij, manager of the Pellikaan centre, said. ‘I said send me a video and they did. And then I saw it wasn’t the sort of snake that we normally have in the Netherlands.’

Verweij said people have kept well away from the snake but that a snake expert had told him the animal had been lethargic because of the cold. ‘Next week it’s warming up and catching it then would be a bit more difficult. But as it is it’s one more great anecdote to tell.’

The snake was taken to a reptile sanctuary In Zwanenburg, RTV Utrecht said.