Swarms of rats attack Muscovites in broad daylight

Swarms of rats attacked Preobrazhenskaya Square in the north-east of Moscow. Eye-witnesses said that not less than 500 large rats appeared on the square and began to attack pedestrians. Several rodents attacked a young woman who was carrying a bag of groceries.

Photo: Swarms of rats attack Muscovites in broad daylight

Eyewitnesses said that the pavement in front of the coffee shop on the square and a part of the traffic area near the traffic lights was literally swarming with rats. Some of the rodents were about 40 cm long, the pedestrians told The Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper.

Two rats unexpectedly attacked a woman when she was crossing the road. One of the rats jumped up into the woman’s bag, while the other one started climbing up her leg. The people nearby rushed to save the woman and scared off other rats that were ready to follow the example of the two attackers.

Muscovites say that the invasion of rats occurred because of the construction: construction workers ousted them from their habitat not far from the square. There was a grocery store in the area, and many rats were living in the basement of the building. Afterwards, the building was used as a bank, but the rats did not leave their territory. They were still living in the basement looking for food in garbage cans near the coffee shop.

The building has been recently leveled. The noise from construction works most likely made the colony of rats start a migration. Specialists say that rats mostly migrate at night to protect their posterity from possible dangers.

A very unpleasant incident took place at children’s hospital in the town of Serpukhov, the Moscow region. Two little girls of 8 and 12 months suffered from the attack of rats in January this year. The rodents gnawed the babies’ hands and faces.