An Offaly mum was left stunned after her son found one of the world's most dangerous snakes in their back garden.
Aoife Kilmurray said that her nine-year-old Fionn spotted the saw-scaled viper, and at first the family wasn't sure how to react.
She told RTE News: "He was just outside playing after lunch, and he came back in and said to my husband 'Come here daddy I want to show you something really cool in the garden'.
"And about ten seconds later the two of them came back in and said to me there's a snake in the garden.
"I obviously started to laugh because I didn't believe either of them.
"The first reaction I suppose was shock, but we were very calm and we didn't know what to do. So we just found a plastic container and put it over it. And then we tried to figure out what do we do, who do we call."
James Hennessy from the National Reptile Zoo confirmed it was the deadly saw-scaled viper, and has taken it into his care.
The family said the snake likely came here on a shipment of stone from India.
