A giggling three-year-old straddled his 20ft pet python ‘like a horse’ during deadly floods in Vietnam.

Extraordinary footage shows the playful toddler ‘riding’ the dangerous snake in ankle-deep water which left a yard submerged.

The boy, named Truong, appears unable to contain his excitement as he leaps on the huge reptile before he ‘giddies up’ like a horse.

Many claimed the astonishing footage was fake when it went viral but the boy’s relatives revealed it was true, reports the Mirror.

The boy’s aunty, An Nguyen, said: ‘He is three years old and the python is 80kg.

‘The family have had the python for four years as a pet and it is very gentle.

‘It was a rainy day and the water flooded to the edge of the yard. So they put the python in there to play and relax.’

The incident was captured at the family’s home in Thanh Hoa province, which has been devastated by the worst floods in Vietnam’s history.

Horrific floods have swamped the country this week, killing at least 54 people and causing hundreds of thousands of homes to be submerged.

The heavy rain in the central and northern regions has disrupted travel in some areas, limiting the rescue attempts for the missing.

Hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings have been destroyed, while vast amounts of live stock have also been killed.