An Irvine furniture shop worker was given a huge fright after a snake fell out of a sofa.

Staff at Cunninghame Furniture Recycling shared the news of their unexpected visitor on Facebook yesterday afternoon.

One of the warehouse workers was carrying out a quality control check and cleaning the inside of a sofa when the animal fell out in front of them.

The business said it almost caused the employee's "soul to leave their body and cause a heart attack".

It hasn't been determined at this stage whether the snake - which is believed to be a Royal Python - is real or fake.

In a post shared on Facebook, they said: "A non-furniture related post to hopefully entertain everyone.

"When our warehouse staff were carrying out the quality control and cleaning inside of the underside of a sofa.

"The member of staff had an unexpected visitor fall, out in front of them causing their soul to leave their body and almost cause a heart attack.

"We are still unsure if it is a real snake that has passed or if it is fake happy for any reptile experts out there to weigh in.

"The customer was contacted and unfortunately it was a reused sofa when the customer got it and they didn't have any pet or toy snakes so we are unable to know if it was a pet or a wild snake (if real).

"It is always best to purchase your reuse items from a reputable reuse charity that has official quality and cleaning standards and processes.

"But don't let this discourage you from buying reuse from others as this is a very very rare downside."