Jan. 25 (UPI) -- An Australian woman who "felt something bite her bottom" while she was sitting on the toilet looked inside the bowl to see a coiled python.
Helen Richards of Chapel Hill, Queensland, said she was "mid-stream" on the toilet when she felt a sharp pain in her rear-end.
"As you can imagine, she jumped up quite quickly," Snake Catchers Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan & Gold Coast said in a Facebook post.
Richards said she scrambled to turn on the light.
"When you've got your knickers and long pants around your ankles it's hard to go anywhere," she told 10 News.
Richards said she snapped a quick photo of the python before piling some pots and pans on the toilet lid to keep it contained.
She contacted Snake Catchers Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan & Gold Coast, which dispatched Jasmine Zeleni to Richards' home.
"I can't praise [Richards] enough for how well she handled the situation," Zeleni said. "I love snakes, but i don't want one attached to my bum, so I understand."
The snake was safely captured and Richards' bite from the non-venomous serpent was treated with antiseptic spray.
Zeleni said snakes turn up in toilets from time to time, but the incident was the first she had heard of one of the reptiles biting someone on the buttocks.