SINGAPORE - What should have been an uneventful late night drive home turned out to be much more exciting when a woman found a snake on the bonnet of her car.

Housewife Cassandra Tan was halfway to her home in Mei Chin Road from Pasir Ris at about 11.50pm on Thursday night (May 9) when she noticed what she thought was a loose piece of rubber poking out from under her vehicle's hood.

She tried to dislodge it with her windscreen wiper, but took a closer look when it kept popping up.

"It came up several times, and at about the fifth time or so I realised it was a snake," Ms Tan, 36, told The Straits Times.

"I was scared and didn't know how to deal with it. What if it was poisonous?"

Ms Tan, who is six months pregnant, called her husband immediately. But he did not believe her at first.

"He thought I was hallucinating," she said.

So, she drove home as quickly as she could to show him the footage from her in-car camera.

"I didn't dare to stop," she said. "My husband was already informed and he was coming down with whatever he could find at home."

She completed the drive home, where the couple attempted for the next half-hour to locate the snake - now hidden back in the bonnet - by using a fly swatter and handheld rubbish picking tool, but to no avail.

Ms Tan, who estimated the snake to be around 1m, called the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society, which said the snake would likely leave on its own after some time.

She then called the neighbourhood police station which asked the National Parks Board (NParks) to contact Ms Tan.

The couple drove to a nearby petrol kiosk to try to find the snake with more light, but were again unsuccessful.

Finally, after a long drive, the snake emerged again on the car's windscreen as they were about to head home. It was past 1am by then.

The couple kept the snake under a cardboard box while waiting for NParks personnel to arrive and remove it.

"I didn't want to kill an animal, I just wanted to get it out alive," said Ms Tan.