Londoner left terrified after discovering 'Thames Anaconda' lurking in river
Social media users were quick to suggest the creature spotted in the Thames was a serpent, with mudlarkers having caught glimpses of a snake in the past.
An "anaconda" was spotted drifting in the River Thames this weekend, a Londoner has claimed.
A social media post went viral over the weekend after a user posted a "mad thing" they saw jutting above the water's surface.
The picture shows a dark, lumpy blotch in the waterway, with a red eye appearing to stare out at the photographer, giving it the appearance of a serpent.
The post, which was originally uploaded to Reddit on Friday, July 28, quickly racked up thousands of upvotes.
And thousands more people commented on the unusual find, with one user hailing the return of the "Thames Anaconda".
The Reddit post appeared to show ripples emanating from the dark shape, giving the impression that it had just risen from the Thames's murky depths.
Several users entertained the idea that the river is home to an oversized snake, with one welcoming the "loch Thames monster" and another dubbing it a "behemoth".
Some appeared genuinely frightened of the "monster", as one commenter said it was another thing "to add to my irrational fear collection".
But others were quick to dismiss the find with a more rational explanation.
One user said it seemed like a "bottle cap on a rock", and another concurred, adding it looked like a "wooden post with something red inserted into it at low tide".
Another added: "It's almost certainly the top of a wooden post."
The River Thames is full of centuries'-worth of debris and older structures that could have left behind wooden posts jutting from the water.
But the latest alarm over a "snake" in the Thames isn't the first, as people have reported finding remnants of reptiles in the river before.
In 2022, a mudlarker - someone who combs the banks of the river for objects - found the shed skin of what was thought to have been a Boa constrictor.
Jason Sandy said he couldn't believe he found the skin, which he thought had "washed in with the tide", and hoped it wasn't "evidence of more snakes living along the Thames".