Giant 4-Foot-Long Monster Rat Found in Schoolyard

A ‘monster rat’ has been found in a London playground, and more could be breeding in the sewers. But all is probably not what it seems, as an internet backlash has exposed the photo as containing a perspective trick.

Tony Smith, 46, a gas engineer, found the rat when working on a block of flats near the north London playground. Smith asked his electrician friend James Green to hold the rat while he took a picture.

The image was met with a mixture of ‘glee and disgust’. Smith said of the creature was “the largest rat I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

“I’ve got a cat and a Jack Russell and it was bigger than both of those put together.

We were going to stick it in the bin, but before we did we thought we had better take a picture or people won’t believe it’s real.”

The large rodent, which reportedly weighed about 24 lbs, was seen in a bush next to a popular children’s playground. The average body length of an adult rat is 9 to 11 inches, with a tail of 7 to 9 inches.

A spokesperson for pest-control experts Rentokil explained the average brown rat in the UK is just 12 inches in length, but that these larger rodents could also be breeding beneath the city’s streets.

Smith said this wasn’t the only rat problem they had encountered in the estate where he was working. He claimed there has been an infestation of giant rats, which is being combated with poison.

“The bins get left open nearby so these little fellas have a pretty good diet.

Zoologists believe the rodent could be a West African grasscutter rat, also known as a cane rat.

Source: Stuff.co.nz