Airport officials in Paris say police have detained a man trying to smuggle a boa constrictor snake into the country -- hidden in his underpants.

The thirty year-old man had arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport on a flight from Colombia when customs sniffer dogs detected something suspicious in his underwear.

Officials then discovered the forty centimetre-long snake.

The man said he'd wanted to add it to his collection.

The boa constrictor, which is an internationally-protected species,is being held at the airport's animal centre.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service