Tuesday 11 / February / 2025
Muscat: An Indian family in Oman were in for a surprise, when they found a snake hiding under their car bonnet.
Mohammed Iqbal, a long-term resident of the Sultanate, was driving to work around 8:30 on Wednesday morning, when he was surprised to see a snake escape from underneath the bonnet.
His wife, Afiya, told Times of Oman that the snake had probably crawled underneath the hood to escape the scorching summer temperatures, and had chosen to escape its refuge, slithering out from underneath the hood once the engine under the bonnet had gotten too hot for it.
“My husband works for a power plant in Barka, and he normally leaves for work around 7:45 in the morning,” said Afiya, who lives near the Mall of Muscat in Mabella. “At around 8:30, he saw this snake come out from underneath his bonnet. I think it would have crawled into our bonnet to escape the heat at night, because it was really hot, and our car was parked outside our house all night.
“When the bonnet would have gotten too hot for the snake, then it must have come out,” she said. “The moment my husband saw the snake coming out of the car, he took a video and sent it to me. He didn’t really have to do anything to send the snake away, it just went on its own.”
Afiya asked her husband Mohammed why he didn’t come out of the car to shoo the snake away. Understandably, Mohammed was concerned about the snake biting him, and the related problems that could potentially cause. The family had been living in Barka until recently, when they moved to Mabella so that it would be easier for their son to attend school.
“I asked him why he didn’t go out of the car to deal with the snake, but he was worried about what would’ve happened if the snake went onto his legs or bit him or something,” she admitted. “He did not come out of the car until the snake left.”
Afiya added: “We live in an area in Mabella that is now developing quickly. The entire area in Mabella has only developed recently, and before that, this entire area was just desert, so it is possible that there might have been many snake nests in these areas, before the development began. Because we are from India, where there are many snakes found, particularly during the rainy season, I am somewhat used to it, but there might be others who will find this scary.”
She advised people to thoroughly check their cars before heading out onto the road, so as to avoid untoward incidents that could pose a threat to both the people in the car and those outside.
“A lot of children will have a tendency to put their hands inside the seats of the car, or in the glove compartment, and if there is some animal there, it could bite the children, and we may not know about it until it is too late,” Afiya said. “Please check your car properly before going on any journey, because it is so hot these days, so some animal may have crawled underneath it for protection from the sun.
“Many people also tend to leave their windows slightly open, particularly during the day and at night, so that the car stays cool, and that is also fine, just make sure that your car is safe before you get in,” she added.
