Freed snakes flood Chinese village

BEIJING, May 6 (UPI) -- What appeared to be an invasion of snakes scared residents of a Chinese village as the reptiles were spotted crawling on roads and climbing trees.

The snakes appeared in the village in the Zhuhai special economic zone Sunday, Xinhua, the official government news agency, reported. The area is in Guangdong province in southeastern China.

Eventually, the villagers got organized and went on a snake hunt. About 200 were killed.

The snakes, it turned out, had been released by a factory manager who believes, for religious reasons, that snakes should not be killed. He had bought the snakes and freed them in order to save their lives.