Sierra Leone police station turns into snakepit

Hundreds of hissing serpents have infested a Sierra Leone police station.

Law enforcers in Sierra Leone are used to slithering low life but the invasion of a police station by hundreds of hissing serpents has left even some of the toughest officers afraid to go to work.

An estimated 400 snakes, mostly cobras and vipers, have infested the station in the town of Gerihun in Sierra Leone's southern Bo district.

Residents also complain that they are too afraid of the snakes to go there to report crimes.

"(The snakes) have been in the... police station since January and despite fumigating exercises carried out by officials of the Ministry of Health, many of the reptiles have not been dislodged," Town Chief Momoh Fornah told AFP in a telephone interview.

The authorities are now looking to bring in army sharp-shooters to dispatch the unwelcome guests, he added.

Police officers at the station said the presence of the snakes had left many of them too afraid to work from their desks.

"We constantly hear hisses and weird sounds from the roof and we are always restless," said one police officer, who asked not to be identified.

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