This is the terrifying moment, a 2.5 feet long king cobra is found in the air conditioner machine of a small community hospital in India.

The lone doctor, V K Chakrapani, and two other staff members of the hospital in MCL colony in Bhubaneswar in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, had a terrifying experience on Tuesday morning when they called an AC mechanic to fix the machine as foul smell was coming out of it.

However, when the mechanic removed the cover of the machine to look into it, he shouted, cobra, and ran away from the room, reports the Story Trender.

Dr V K Chakrapani said: ‘We had called the mechanic to fix the machine and didn’t know there would be a cobra hiding inside it.

‘We got very scared and ran out of the room.’

The panic-stricken staffers called Snake Helpline, an organisation that assists in snake rescues in the state, for help.

Volunteer Subhendu Mallik reached the spot within 30 minutes and rescued the snake.

He said: ‘Though I’ve rescued rat snakes, bronze back tree snakes from AC machines earlier but this was the first time I found a cobra hiding in an AC.

‘When I stood on the table to have a close look at the cobra, he stood gracefully displaying it’s majestic hood.

‘There was a soil heap outside the window where the AC is fixed and I believe the snake had most probably climbed from there.’

The snake was removed from the AC within just 10 minutes and later released in its natural habitat.