Rat 'as big as a four-year-old boy' found in London
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Electrician James Green with the giant rat Credit: SWNS
Workers have found what they believe to be a giant rat "bigger than a four-year-old boy" in London.
Engineers came across the dead "mutant rodent" near a children's playground, while they were working at a block of flats near Hackney Downs, north London on Thursday.
Gas engineer Tony Smith, 46, who spotted the rodent in a bush, said: "This is 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."
The creature was measured at an astonishing four feet long.
Electrician James Green is pictured proudly holding the 25lb "mutant" rodent:
I've got a cat and a Jack Russell and it was bigger than both of those' Credit: SWNS
We were going to stick it in the bin, but before we did we thought we better take a picture of people won't believe it's real.
– Tony Smith, who found the rat
Smith said that the estate where he was working has an infestation of rats, so poison is left around to catch the creatures.
He said: "The bins get left open nearby so these little fellas have a pretty good diet.
"They eat fried chicken and rice all the time."
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A good tail: Electrician James Green with the giant rat Credit: SWNS
Expert's view
Professor Jane Hurst, who specialises in mammalian behaviour and evolution at Liverpool University, has told ITV News that while there's a chance a deceptive camera angle has made the creature appear larger, it is most likely a Gambian pouched rat that was someone's pet.
"They're increasingly being kept as pets because they tame quite nicely," she said. "It's extremely unlikely this was not someone's pet."
It's mostly likely a Gambian pouched rat because it has a very large head.
– Professor Jane Hurst
The species have extremely sensitive noses and are used in Gambia to sniff out mines and in the UK in laboratories to sniff out tuberculosis.
http://www.itv.com/news/2(...)boy-found-in-london/zo groot heb ik ze nog nooit gezien
"A lie is a lie even if everyone believes it. The truth is the truth even if no one believes it."