A green anaconda died after being run over on a street in Mato Grosso, Brazil - and after images of the incident went viral, people couldn't believe what was inside it.

It appeared the green anaconda, which is also known as the giant anaconda as it can grow to more than 29 feet, was pregnant - and 40 of its offspring ended up scattered on the road.

The "terrifying" scene was captured by Adriano Próspero, an agricultural engineer who was travelling to Cuiabá and came across the sad scene. Video footage of the incident went viral on social media after it was posted by Adriano's friend Ederson Negri Antonioli on his Instagram account.

GRAPHIC IMAGE WARNING: Some may find the images below disturbing.

"I saw an animal, I thought it was alive and slowed down. When I arrived, it was already dead. It certainly happened at night because the encounter was very early, so the offspring were already dead. It was terrible, a terrifying scene," said Daniella França, a doctor in Zoology and a specialist in reptiles and amphibians, who stressed that this type of accident is frequent on the roads.

The green anaconda is about seven metres long, but in some cases they are longer than average, especially in the case of females. In this case, the animal could be in search of a stream or lake to give birth, explains França.

"What we see in the pictures are dozens of snakes apparently ready to be born," she says. The fact that we can see them can be due to two factors: the opening caused by the collision of a vehicle with the animal, or they may have exited directly through the mother's birth canal.

The death of such a large number at the same time has a major environmental impact, as these animals are large predators and help to control animal populations. Although it is not a venomous species, in situations where it feels threatened, it may attack. The Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAM) is the body in charge of implementing measures to compensate for impacts of this type.