A naked man has been scared witless by a snake that somehow found its way into the shower with him.

Army employee Thomas Friedrich, 30, from the village of Matzles in the district of Waidhofen an der Thaya in the Austrian state of Lower Austria, was taking a shower when he saw a 60- to 70-centimetre-long reptile hanging alongside him.

According to local media, Thomas went into the shower after returning home from a motorcycle ride on the evening of 11th August.

However, as the warm water streamed through the shower head, the man noticed a snake hanging only 30 centimetres (11 inches) away from him.

Friedrich said: “I was totally flabbergasted and couldn’t believe my eyes. I didn’t dare to move. But then I took it easy.”

The 30-year-old man carefully got out of the shower and called for backup as his parents live in the same apartment building.

He said: “I called my father. Together we did some internet research and clarified whether the snake was poisonous.”

According to their estimations, the snake was a non-venomous smooth snake (Coronella austriaca) found in northern and central Europe, but also as far east as northern Iran.

He said: “It [the species] is often confused with an adder.”

By combining their forces, the two men used a broomstick to catch the snake after which they put it in a bucked and covered it with a towel.

Thomas’ father then released the snake into a nearby pond where, according to his son, it feels much better.

Tomas said: “My dad turned out to be quite a snake handler and was able to catch the spitting reptile and release it back into nature.”

Regarding where they snake came from, he said: “We wondered quite a lot. It most likely crawled through the open garage door.”

Snakes have recently dominated the headlines in Austrian media after Walter Erhard, 65, from the city of Graz, was bitten on his genitals by an albino python during a morning bathroom trip on 5th July.

The man was taken to the city’s University Hospital and treated for minor injuries.

However, in a second incident that happened during the same week, a man named Dominic S., 24, died in hospital after he was bitten by a nose-horned viper that he kept in his home in the city of Enns in Austria on 7th July.

On 7th August, a man from Vienna was shocked to discover a two-metre long Aesculapian snake hiding in the cistern after his toilet was reportedly flushing itself in the middle of the night.