Chennai, Tamil Nadu police have launched a hunt for a woman who scared the people with a cobra and extracted money from them.

After a video of the woman with cobra went viral, the police registered a suo motu case against her.

An officer with the Tambaram police station told IANS that the woman appeared to be a nomad and a snake charmer. She had told the residents that she belonged to Villupuram, he said.

The police said that the woman would go from house to house at Meppadu in Tambaram asking for money and clothes. If refused, she took out a snake from a basket and scared the residents.

Sukumaran Nair, a resident of Meppadu, told IANS: "One morning the woman came asking for money. At houses, when the people refused to give her money, she opened a basket and played an instrument at which a cobra slithered out. The horrified residents gave her money and clothes and sent her away. Someone filmed the incident which went viral and was noticed by police."

He said that the woman told the people that her son lived in Tambaram and that she used to carry the cobra whenever she visited her son by train.

Forest officials have also joined the police in the hunt for the woman.