Kayaker spots 18-foot python floating down the canal

A canoeist got the shit scared out of him this week when he paddled past a massive Burmese python in the Grand Union Canal in Aylestone, Leicestershire.

Sadly the snake was dead, the victim of another irresponsible owner or some other type of all round bad egg.

"As I passed under a bridge on the stretch at Aylestone I saw a long slim shape just under the water" Kayaker Sebastian Bishop explained.

"I went to investigate and prodded it with my paddle. I lifted part of it up and was shocked to see it was a snake."

Sebastian guesstimates that the serpent was a good 18-foot long, which is quite possible for an albino Burmese python.