The snake has been captured and is in police possession, according to a statement by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Police speculate that the serpent escaped its enclosure at the Reptile Ocean store sometime overnight, got into the ventilation system, and then into the upstairs apartment where the young boys, reportedly brothers aged five and seven years old, were staying over with the son of the store's owner, Jean-Claude Savoie.

Savoie told Global News that he made the horrific discovery when he went to check on the children in the morning.

"My body is in shock. I don't know what to think," he said. "I thought they were sleeping until I [saw] the hole in the ceiling. I turned the