Hong Kong police find nearly 800 cobras

Hong Kong police found nearly 800 cobras that they believe were being smuggled for sale as a delicacy, a report said Sunday.

The 789 venomous Chinese cobras were found packed into 181 plastic boxes and hidden in bushes behind a beach on Hong Kong's Lantau island, the Sunday Morning Post newspaper reported.

Animal management officials put the snakes down with lethal injections, saying they could not be released into the wild because they would pose a threat to people's safety.

Chinese cobras are commonly used to make snake wine, medicine and soup, and are particularly popular in mainland China.