Pet Shop Worker Killed By Suspected Cobra Bite

TEXAS -- A pet shop employee has died after he was found inside his car with puncture wounds on his wrist from a suspected bite from a cobra, according to reports.

Grant Thompson, 18, was pronounced dead at St David's Round Rock Medical Center in Austin on Tuesday night.

The teenager, who worked at Fish Bowl Pet Express in Temple along with his mother, was found unconscious in the car park of a Lowe's store.

Paramedics said he had gone into cardiac arrest and had puncture wounds on his wrist, myFOXdc.com reported.

The website said the man who called 911 after spotting the teenager told operators: "Can I tell you something? He has bumper stickers that say I brake for snakes.

"I don't know if he was bitten or anything."

  

Animal Control officers discovered a bull frog, six tarantulas and one non-venomous brown snake inside the car.

But police said a monocled cobra was missing from a cage inside Mr Thompson's home and was not found inside the vehicle.

An autopsy will take place on Thursday.

Monocled cobras are widespread across South and Southeast Asia and have a distinctive O-shaped mark on the back of their hood.

Their venom blocks nerve transmissions, which leads to respiratory failure.

Monocled cobras cause the most deaths in Thailand from snake bites.

(Sky News - July 16, 2015)