A Nigerian University has taken the drastic step of hiring snake charmers to help rid its campus of a reptile problem following the death of a student who was bitten by a snake earlier this month.

Economics student Zainab Umar died last Monday three days after suffering the bite while studying in Umaru Musa Yar’Adua University in Katsina, north-west Nigeria, reports BBC news.

The university’s Dean of Students’ Affairs, Dr Suleiman Kankara, confirmed the hiring of the snake charmers but said they had planned on hiring them before Umar’s death.

The BBC story says, against medical advice, Ms Umar was taken away by her friends and her brother from the university clinic where she had been receiving treatment, Mr Kankara added.

Snake charmers typically play a flute which the snake appears to respond to, often at close striking range.

Astonishingly, the snake seems reluctant to strike despite a flared hood in the case of cobras.

In Nigeria, snake charmers physically handle cobras with their bare hands in street performances and sometimes involve members of their audience.

It is common in the northern part of Nigeria as a form of street entertainment but also as a means of advertising the possession of "special powers, charms or medicines" which are sold to onlookers.