The man was found travelling with 20 snakes in his hand luggage. (Representative Image)
'Snakes on a plane' is no longer just the name of a Samuel L Jackson movie - it is now also an incident that played out in real life. A man recently confounded airport authorities in Russia after they discovered he had flown into the country with 20 live snakes in his hand baggage. The passenger, whose name and nationality were not given, flew from Germany to Russia with the reptiles inside his bag - fortunately without any untoward incident.
According to Newsweek, the man managed to board at the Dusseldorf Airport in Germany without raising any eyebrows. It was only after he landed in Moscow that officers from the Environmental Protection Agency noticed the snakes inside his bag.
RP Online reports that the man said he had bought the non-venomous snakes from a market in Germany.
German police did not report him while he boarded the flight, which means he might have had the documents necessary to carry the snakes. However, he did not have the requisite permission to bring the snakes into Russia.
Russia's Sheremetyevo International Airport confirmed the incident in a statement, reports Newsweek.
"The reptiles were in canisters, packed in bags, carried in hand luggage. There were no documents provided for the reptiles," they said. "The species of snakes will be determined by specialists, but according to preliminary information they are not of a venomous species."
The snakes have now been placed in quarantine in Moscow.
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