Cape cobra beneath concrete forces snake catcher to call for a jackhammer

• A Cape Cobra vanished under thick concrete at a South African residential property, leaving a snake catcher with no easy options
• The snake catcher tried flushing the highly venomous cobra out with water before calling for a jackhammer to break through the slab
• South Africans online were divided over whether the dramatic rescue effort was worth it

A snake catcher in South Africa faced one of his more unusual callouts on 20 October 2026. He arrived at a residential property only to find a Cape Cobra had disappeared beneath a thick slab of solid concrete.

The homeowner, Kevin, explained how the encounter unfolded. He had returned from hospital and nipped home briefly before heading to the pharmacy. As he unlocked the security gate and stepped through, the cobra was right there, reared up with its tongue flicking. Kevin said he froze on the spot, retreating and moving forward a few times before he started screaming. He eventually reached his gardener, who was working nearby, and the two of them watched as the snake slipped under the concrete.

With the cobra buried under a slab too thick to shift with a pickaxe, @snake.catcher99 tried flushing it out with a hosepipe first. Water was sprayed into the gap beneath the concrete, but the snake did not budge. The catcher was careful not to flood the cavity too quickly, aware that a trapped snake could drown. When the water approach failed, he put out a call for someone to bring a jackhammer.

Throughout the footage by @snake.catcher99, the catcher stayed calm and methodical, even pausing to sweep the garden to check whether the cobra had already slipped out and climbed a tree while nobody was watching. It had not. The Part 1 label on the clip made clear the rescue was far from over. Watch the rescue unfold below:

Mzansi reacts to the snake rescue

South Africans in the comments had plenty to say about the unfolding drama:

@Tammy Nesbitt wrote:

"This is the most South African thing I've seen. Aunty 'flaring its thingy', one guy catching the snake is in shorts, guy with the jackhammer is in plakkies [flip flops]."

@Ant said:

"Guy catching the DEADLY snake is wearing shorts and some teacher's shoes and the guy with the jackhammer is wearing sandals."

@guest2024.2 suggested:

"Simple cheap and safe solution, fill the cracks with concrete."

@ЛЕБОХАНГ was firm:

"I'm not destroying my floor over a snake. If it was my house, that concrete block would be its forever home."

@Dear Broken wrote:

"Omg! All that for a snake! Just leave it there jeeez."

@kgosi asked:

"Why destroy your property for a snake?"

@Final Boss. offered:

"Why not just cement that space while it's in there?"

Other Briefly News stories about snake encounters

• A man in the Bluff area of Durban was bitten by a mamba and delayed seeking emergency treatment after Facebook users wrongly assured him in a post that the snake was non-venomous.
• Access Professional Development conducted a snake identification, handling, and snakebite treatment course for solar and wind energy workers near Upington.
• Local wildlife platform Slangboere shared Facebook footage capturing a large black mamba scaling the side of a corrugated metal water tank on a rural farm in search of water.

Source: Briefly News

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