text: The venomous green-and-yellow snake has been missing since Wednesday, its owner told the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
  The owner is an "experienced snake handler" and has a permit to have the snake as a pet, said the commission's spokesman Greg Workman.
  Local residents are warned not to get close to the snake.
  The owner, Mike Kennedy, is an exotic animal dealer and star of the Discovery Channel reality show Airplane Repo.
  He could face criminal charges for not alerting authorities about the escape immediately.
  Officials are scanning the area surrounding the home in the search for the reptile, which is not native to Florida.
  "Most likely no one is going to see it," Florida Fish and Wildlife captain Chris Roszkowiak said. "We believe it's going to stay on the property here."
  His group is asking people to call an alert hotline if they spot the snake, but the escape has neighbours on edge.
  "I'm going to go load my guns. Well, they're already loaded, but I'm going to have them ready for sure. I mean, that thing's big enough to take you down for sure," James McLeod told WESH, a local TV station.
target: Florida wildlife officials are hunting for an 8-foot-long (2.4m) king cobra snake escaped from an Orlando home.