The great snake escape in Colchester, which put a school on its guard, was masterminded by... a parrot.

Teacher Rachel Goodfellow, of Philip Morant School, spotted a black, red and yellow banded snake in the school woods.

After being captured it was realised it belonged to nearby owners the Hunt family.

Their parrot, Major, had been opening the cage of harmless King Snakes Percy and Baldrick and they escaped.

Now the hunt is on for Baldrick, which is still at large.

Three days later while arranging the rehearsal for the school outdoor performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Colin Green, the head of drama, spotted Percy and grabbed the reptile before it could disappear again.

"We contacted the owner who came round straight away to collect Percy and he told us that the whole episode was down to the parrot who apparently was directly responsible for releasing the reptiles by disengaging the lock on their terrarium," said Mr Keenan.

Baldrick is still at large, Mr Keenan is finding dealing with pupils more interesting than snakes and the parrot has been given a major detention.

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