The mystery over the fate of an escaped 10ft python which has been missing for two months took another turn today.

Owner Chris Cini has been frantically searching for pet Zombie since it went missing from his home in Larkfield in June.

But there had been no sign of Zombie since she was photographed slithering along Chaucer Way on the Poet’s Estate around the time of her disappearance.

Warning, graphic image below

Yesterday the grim discovery of a dead snake was made a short distance from Chaucer Way in Masefield Road, prompting people to fear the worst.

A neighbour of the resident who alerted the RSPCA, which arranged for the remains to be taken away, feared it was Zombie, adding: “It would be very worrying to think there are more snakes on the loose.”

But today Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council confirmed that it was not the missing pet, and was in fact another snake.

It is unclear how the animal came to be there.

A picture of 11-year-old constrictor Zombie, a female Coastal Carpet Python, was shared hundreds of times on social media prompting scores of helpers to join Mr Cini in searching the undergrowth.

Zombie - so called because of her heavy breathing - is one of nine snakes he keeps at his home in Fielding Drive.

It is thought she may have escaped by sneaking through a conservatory door into the garden.

Do you know who the mystery snake belongs to? Email messengernews@thekmgroup.co.uk