THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — A deadly albino cobra that ran loose for days in a Southern California neighborhood was captured Thursday.

“We are overjoyed. We are glad that the public was not harmed,” Los Angeles County spokesman Brandon Dowling said after county animal control officers nabbed the monocled cobra shortly after 3 p.m.

Television reports showed officers using a long-handled tonglike grabber to haul the snake from a pile of scrap lumber in a backyard and put it in a long wooden box. It was taken to an animal shelter.

The venom of the cobra is a neurotoxin that can kill within an hour.

The cobra apparently escaped from captivity, although authorities had not found the owner.

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