An Indian villager, Laxman Mohapatra, had kept a few albino mice as pets in a crate in his home near Puri in eastern India.

On April 28, he heard a strange noise coming from the crate. When he inspected he was terrified to find a huge cobra inside and three of his albino mice missing.

He called Snake Helpline for help, which sent a volunteer Sushant Behera to help him.

When Sushant reached the spot he found that the snake had killed all the mice.

It was a scary sight to see the cobra hunting the mice which kept running towards it oblivious to the danger they were in.

Though the cobra was very aggressive initially, it started getting stressed as it sensed the presence of humans near the crate and regurgitated all the mice it had eaten.

Sushant rescued the deadly snake with a stick, put it inside a bag and released it later at a natural habitat far away from the village.

Founder of Snake Helpline Subhendu Mallik said: "People keep pets rodents and birds in cages without realising that they may attract snakes. They should ensure the cages are snake proof."

On the strange behaviour of the mice running towards the snake, Subhendu said: ''The albino mice were reared in captivity. So they failed to realise the danger they were in. A wild rat would have fled to save its life.''