Malkangiri: Panic gripped the district headquarters hospital (DHH) in Odisha’s Malkangiri town on Wednesday morning after a cobra was spotted inside the premises.

According to sources, a priest, who had arrived to perform daily rituals at a Ganesh idol located on the premises, spotted the snake near the idol. He promptly alerted the hospital administration, who then cautioned patients, staff, and attendants, asking them to remain vigilant till the reptile was safely removed.

Members of the local Snake Helpline were called in, who then reached the hospital and captured it. The snake was then released into the wild. “We suspect the cobra slithered into the hospital from the nearby dense forest,” Debi Ranjan Mahapatra, a doctor at the DHH, told the media.

Hospital officials stated they would review and strengthen preventive measures to avoid similar intrusions in the future, given the potential danger posed by venomous snakes in a healthcare setting.

A similar incident was reported in the hospital in 2019.