Staff at a German post office were frightened when a 5-foot python escaped from a packet mailed by a 28-year-old woman. The woman labeled the pack "attention - glass," and had mailed it to a client in an Internet sale.

Reuters quotes police spokesman Andreas Blum as saying, "Staff accepted the package and put it in the back of the office -- they had no idea what it was." He said, "All of a sudden, they noticed that it started moving around and then saw a big snake wriggling out of it."

A local post office staff worker managed to put the albino python into another container as other colleagues vanished from the office in fear.

The woman, who mailed the snake, is currently under investigation.