September19 was Snakebite Awareness Day, an initiative of the World Health Organisation (WHO). Each year, according to Médecins Sans Frontières, 5.4m people are bitten by snakes, with up to 2.7m incapacitated.

Investigators have been summoned for emergency talks on the crisis in Salisbury, where the fallout from a suspected nerve agent attack continues to widen.

A kilogramme of fearsome-looking stag beetles and an endangered species of turtle are among the strange creatures to have been seized by customs officials at Irish airports and mailing centres in recent years, it has been revealed.