This is the horrifying moment a 10ft long python was caught in a shop roof - slowly eating a monitor lizard.

Grocery store owner Aan Inpet, 62, was getting ready for bed on Saturday (November 10) when she heard the stomach-churning noises-in her back room.

She looked up and saw the snake's tail hanging through a gap - with the lizard's claws also poking through.

The pensioner shrieked in fright and ran outside to a neighbour who called for help from the emergency services in Chachoengsao, Thailand.

Footage shows how animal handlers had to smash through the foam installation to reveal the thick serpent coiled around the one-metre long monitor lizard.

Aan said: ''This was horrible. It was like a nightmare. I'm just glad that I found it before I went to sleep or it could have been very dangerous. It could have been me next.''

The monitor lizard was released from the snake's clutches and dropped to the ground. One paramedic performed CPR on the lizard but it had already been suffocated and killed by the python.

Rescue workers grappled with the snake which struck out several times - almost biting one man's foot - before it was dragged into the street and stuffed into a bag. The aggressive python was later released into the wild.

Chokchai Wattana from the Chachoengsao Rescue Foundation said: ''The snake would have swallowed the lizard if we did not come. It was already dead so there was nothing we could do to save its life.

''It is quite unusual to find a snake eating a large lizard. The monitor was about one metre long.''