'Shy' king cobra on the loose leads Orlando school to lock children inside

Children at a Florida school were locked indoors on Thursday as wildlife officials scoured the grounds for a venomous 8ft-long king cobra that broke free from a cage and slithered away from its owner’s home.

Staff at Clarcona elementary school in Orlando moved physical education classes and recess inside until the deadly snake, which authorities say has enough venom to kill 20 humans, was recaptured.

Reptile experts, meanwhile, urged local residents not to panic. Carl Barden of the Reptile Discovery Center in DeLand reassured readers of the Orlando Sentinel that there was “plenty” of king cobra antivenin available in central Florida and that “the chances of that snake actually biting someone are extremely remote.”

The naturally shy snake, he added, would almost certainly race away if it sensed humans and would only try to bite a person if it was cornered.

Authorities, however, were taking few chances as search teams of rangers from the Florida fish and wildlife commission and volunteers experienced in handling dangerous animals fanned out around the area.

The king cobra went missing late on Tuesday or early Wednesday from the house of its keeper, Mike Kennedy, who runs a nonprofit animal sanctuary called Dragon Ranch from his home in Apopka Vineland Road.

“It wasn’t deliberately let out from what we can see. Looks like it escaped its cage it was in,” said fish and wildlife captain Chris Roszkowiak.

He said Kennedy was a certified zoologist with a license to keep dangerous animals at home and had years of experience handling exotic animals including alligators, cougars, crocodiles and leopards. The owner joined the search on Thursday for the escaped green and yellow snake.

Nervous neighbors, already unhappy to be living in close proximity to the poisonous snake, were even more upset to hear it was on the loose.

“No snakes in the home, period. Snakes belong in the snakes’ environment and leave them there,” Orlando resident John Roberts told WESH-TV.

Another neighbor, Bryan Shattuck was more worried about his pet. “I’m a little concerned,” he said. “I have a small cat at home, and snakes like cats.”