Hundreds of snakes on the loose as wild weather in China kills 17

Devastating weather in China has killed at least 17 people, forced tens of thousands of residents to evacuate their homes and released hundreds of snakes.

Large portions of the country’s southern provinces have been slammed by heavy rainfall and flooding from Typhoon Maysak just a week into its flood season, starting in July.

Authorities in the southern region of Guangxi have confirmed the deaths of at least six people, with a further 11 people missing and 130,000 displaced.

Chinese social media platform Weibo is awash with people describing loved ones living in or visiting the region in a desperate attempt to locate them.

Locals in eastern Guangxi are also now facing a slithery impact of the wild weather, with more than 900 snakes on the loose from a breeding farm in a village in Heng County.

Footage of the snakes slithering through raging flood waters have since spread across the internet, although many are yet to be verified.

Local official Wu Zhi told Red Star News most of the snakes were non-venomous and a team of 10 people had been formed to catch the escapees with fishing nets and stun guns.

One video posted to social media appears to show a deadly cobra barely above the waterline with its hood flared at the person taking the footage.

A villager had been bitten and is being treated in hospital, while a dozen locals had also formed a team to catch the snakes, the Hongxing report said.

Zhi urged locals not to try catching the snakes with their hands if they find them sheltering in their home.

Snake farms are particularly lucrative in the country, raising the animals to sell to restaurants for food, or for traditional medicine and leather.

The typhoon has also whipped up thunderstorms and gale-force winds which have killed 11 people and injured 330 more in the central province of Hubei, state news agency Xinhua reports.

One of the worst-affected places was Huanggang city, where the wind was so strong it sucked a 30-year-old man and some of his belongings, including his sofa and cabinets, from his 12th-floor apartment. He is currently receiving care in hospital.

Authorities are also desperately searching for 16 people who are still missing after a landslide in the western province of Gansu on Tuesday morning.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said “full efforts” will be made to minimise casualties caused by the wild weather.

He said the government will organise rescues, treatment for those injured and disaster relief for those impacted by the flooding and landslide.

— With CNN