Police find nine protected pythons packed on bus bound for Shanghai

Police discovered nine pythons being transported Friday on a long-distance bus bound for Shanghai, local media reported Sunday.

Traffic police stopped the bus for a routine check around 11 am at the Fengjing checkpoint on the Shanghai-Kunming Highway, according to a report in the Shanghai Morning Post.

Pythons are classified as first-class national protected animals.

It was unclear who was responsible for putting the pythons on the bus.

The snakes had been packed into nine disposable food cartons in two separate foam boxes on the bus, the report said. The names of the different species were marked in English on the boxes. The largest python was about 50 centimeters long, though the other eight were only slightly smaller.

It is against the law to transport first-class national protected animals without a permit, the report said. Anyone caught transporting protected wild animals can face criminal charges.