They say you’re never more than ten feet away from a rat. It’s less than that if you’re unlucky enough to be out in a city center in the dead of night. Newcastle resident Mick Triplow filmed the creepy scene of a pack of the rodents scurrying through the city’s streets at about 5am. His video shows the creatures checking out a range of the local takeaways, looking for spilled food or a way in. Mick makes a bit of noise to see if he can get a reaction and even more of the rats sprint under a fire exit and into the distance.
Mick was finishing a shift in the early hours, and says rats are “regular occurrence” in the city center. He told Chronicle Live: “Rats are a regular occurrence in a couple of areas. “We have seen rats in the Bigg Market but never this amount. The floor was almost alive. “You often see the odd two or three there, but this was 20 to 40 easy.”
A local Councillor commented: “This week we launched our anti-littering campaign to raise awareness of the effects littering and irresponsible waste disposal has on the city. “Factors including the careless disposal of food waste often cause rat populations to become more visible and it is everyone responsibility to ensure they dispose of waste, especially food waste correctly.”
