A loose python is reportedly terrorising the residents of the Lyulin 9 district of Bulgaria's capital Sofia and has eaten 30 kittens, according to local media. 

Multiple reports in the social networks and news websites claim the snake is between 1.5 and 5 m long and has already devoured 30 stray kittens.

According to news.bg, Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova has personally dispatched four snake experts from the Sofia zoo to hunt down the mysterious python. They are equipped for the snake hunt and will look for it until they find it. Sofia zoo director Ivan Ivanov told the media that the reptile will not share the sad fate of the jaguar Alonso and will be displayed in the zoo.

A resident of the Lyulin 9 district told the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) public broadcaster that the python was hiding behind her kitchen curtain and scared off her cat. “A few days ago I was at home in the evening when my cat started meowing loudly,” Frona Dimitrova said. “I drew the curtain and I saw a very scary animal. I later found out it was a python. It was trying to get the cat, but jumped at me as well. Then, I don't know what happened, but it fell on the ground and coiled itself.” 

The son of Frona Dimitrova, Marian, expressed his concern that the python might have spawned an offspring.

The husband of another witness, told BNT his wife Ralista Nikolova also saw the mysterious python. “My wife was hanging the washing and dropped a sheet. She went down to pick it up and saw the snake sliding in front of her feet. It even licked them and thy were covered in slime.”

The veterinary doctor Mila Bobadova, however, told Novinite.com that pythons don't lick people's feet and don't secrete slime and laughed off the entire story. 

“This could be a “summery” news,” another vet, Doctor Krasimir Kamenov, told the Trud daily. “Theoretically a python could eat a cat, but only needs one per month. It is not fast and does not jump or streak past. Usually it comes out at night, but if it was a pet, it would not attack.” 

According to Kamenov, if the whole python story were true, there was no way for the snake to grow savage and attack. He also explained that the cats could not have been eaten by the local types of snakes, because they cannot devour anything larger than a mouse.