Viral video shows snake eating pigeon in busy London street, but all is not as it seems

A snake has been seen eating a pigeon on a busy street in East London.

Photographs and video posted on social media showed the snake coiled around the bird on the pavement outside a shop on Leytonstone High Road on Saturday morning.

The Evening Standard reported that onlookers had fed the already dead pigeon to the constrictor. A spokeswoman for the animal charity RSPCA, which was called to the incident, said it did not believe the snake hunted down and killed the bird.

The snake was taken to a nearby wildlife centre, where it was being assessed, the animal welfare charity said.

Rebecca Benson, an RSPCA inspector, told the Press Association: “I’m very keen to find out how he came to be in such a dangerous situation.

“Exposed like that on a street could have meant anything might have happened to him – he could have been run over by a car or attacked by another animal.

“It might be that he is an escaped pet or, more worryingly, someone may have deliberately dumped him and left him to fend for himself.”

On Monday, it was reported that an eight-foot python had slithered through the plumbing of a toilet into a blind man’s flat in Exeter.