A MAN caused a s-s-stir when he went shopping in Tesco with his snake.

Ursula Berry, 72, was at Tesco on Spytty Road, at around 12pm, when she spotted a man in his 20s walking around the store with a snake wrapped around his arm.

Mrs Berry, of Pontfaen, said she was petrified at the sight of the thin, dark-coloured reptile, which was moving and raising its head and tail.

She complained to a member of staff saying she thought it was unsafe and unhygienic that the scaled creature was in the supermarket.

Mrs Berry, who shops regularly at the store, said several other shoppers voiced their concerns and the man was asked to leave but was still allowed to pay for his goods at a self service checkout.

She said: “I was frightened to death. I just couldn’t believe it.”

“I thought it couldn’t be real but it was moving and I heard him talking to somebody saying he fed it mice.”

Mrs Berry’s husband John, 74, said he could not believe it when his wife told him what she saw.

He said: “I suppose the thing was safe but we don’t know. What if it got away? It could have caused a panic.”

A Tesco spokeswoman confirmed the man entered the store on Saturday but was immediately escorted from the premises as soon as the snake was noticed.

She added he was not allowed to continue shopping and was taken to the self service checkout where staff scanned his items for him at a self service check out before he left.