An 80-year-old heart surgery patient leapt from his intensive care bed and used his walking stick to beat a deadly viper to death. Miko Vukovic spotted the snake on the floor of the hospital in Ogulin in central Croatia. The snake is believed to have been brought into the hospital in a giant bunch of flowers where a discarded snake skin was also found by the staff. It then made its way into the intensive care ward as it looked for a new place to hide.

Vukovic was with three other cardiology department patients during the night when he noticed the poisonous "vipera berus" snake close to his bed. He said: "I was fighting for 10 minutes before I managed to kill it with my walking stick. The bugger almost bit me in the leg but then I let it have it right between the eyes."