A RADLETT vet went to the rescue of shoppers and staff after a snake was found outside Budgens yesterday (Tuesday).

Harriet Nicholson, a vet at Medivet Radlett, was called to Budgens, also located on Watling Street, after the snake was discovered at about 8.45am near external stairs on one side of the store.

Shop manager Yalini Prabaharan said she had parked her car and was about to walk up the stairs, when she noticed a crowd.

She added: “They were saying, ‘there’s a snake, there’s a snake’. I couldn’t believe it. People were panicking and we didn’t know what to do.

“So I called the RSPCA, but no one answered the phone, then I tried the police, but they didn’t want to come out. In the end I called the vets up the road.”

Yalini said that while they waited, someone moved a cardboard box near the creature.

She added: “It was trying to climb up the wall. I think it was scared. It went inside the box and we kept it there till the vet arrived.”

Harriet said that when the clinic took the call, staff assumed it might be a slow-worm or grass snake.

However when they collected it, they realised it was a charcoal corn snake, and not venomous.

Harriet said: “They come from America and people keep them as pets. This one was obviously an escape artist. But it wasn’t a problem handling it. It was very friendly.”

The three-feet-long reptile is now being looked after by the RSPCA.