Cobra wraps around man driving car

PRETORIA, South Africa, March 4 (UPI) -- A South African man says he and his wife remained calm as a nearly three-foot-long cobra wrapped itself around his leg as he was driving his car.

Gordon Parratt, 69, of Pretoria, said the dangerous Mozambique spitting cobra got inside his car last week at the Biyamiti rest camp in South Africa's Kruger National Park, and several miles after driving off, he felt something like an insect brush against his leg, Beeld, a South African newspaper, reported Wednesday.

"Fortunately I'm not the panicky type," Parratt said. "My wife immediately put her feet up on the dashboard."

The couple stopped at a reptile park in Hazyview, but couldn't find the snake. Instead of leaving the car, however, Parratt wanted to keep driving, and soon found the snake wrapped around his left leg up to the knee amidst heavy traffic and a hard rain, the newspaper said.

Parratt said he located a snake expert who was able to catch the reptile.