The Oudsbergen Nature Aid Centre caught an extremely dangerous and venomous snake at Dilissen Logistics, a logistics company in the Flemish province of Limburg, it announced on Wednesday.
The snake, a Palestinian viper, crawled around in a shipment coming from Israel, the centre announced on its Facebook.
"We received a vague photo and based on the spotting pattern we suspected it to be a Palestinian viper (Daboia palaestinae), an extremely dangerous and aggressive venomous snake, for which there is currently no known antivenom," the centre said.
The Nature Centre's snake specialist, Martijn Houbrechts, wearing a thick coat and thick gloves, used a snake hook to catch the animal and put it in a box.
"Fortunately, everything went well. The workers were startled, but we caught the animal safely," Houbrechts said. "Such a snake can react quite aggressively in self-defence."
The Palestinian viper will be taken to the Walloon laboratory Alphabiotoxin by the Nature Aid Centre. "That centre captures several poisonous animals and they investigate whether the poison has medicinal properties and can be used if necessary."
