Super-sized species: Rats in Indonesia and South America can grow up to three feet long, and witnesses say the rats in Bradford are just as bigWhen Brandon Goddard picked up an air rifle and went 'ratting' with mates at a rodent-plagued estate, he had no idea that he would come face-to-face with a 30-inch monster.
The 31-year-old cleaning firm manager today told of the terrifying moment when five huge rats burst out from behind a wall - each about the size of a large cat - and galloped past him.
And he said: 'They were more like "ratzillas" than rats.'
The residents of Ravenscliffe estate in Bradford, West Yorkshire, had been been complaining of super-sized rodents seen around their homes - with some even claiming to have occasionally cornered one in their kitchen or lounge.
Mr Goddard - who says that he and his mates go rat hunting a couple of times a week - decided to see if he could bag one of the bigger ones.
He and his pals took an air rifle and headed to the edge of the estate.
He said the group had heard rustling and scratching near the wall before he got the shock of his life.
He told The Sun: 'The first went right past but we got the second one. Then three more got away.
Infested: The Ravenscliffe estate, where residents have been plagued by giant rats, and where Brandon Goddard shot a two-and-a-half-foot specimen'I've never seen any as big as this. The one I shot was absolutely terrifying. I was shaking, Goodness knows where the others went. I'm glad I don't live there.'
The average water rat can grow as large as 18 inches - nose to tale - but large species in Indonesia and South America have been known to grow to three feet.
Some residents of Ravenscliffe are worried that the super-species might have somehow made their way to the UK.
Experts couldn't get their hands on the specimen Mr Goddard shot because he threw it into undergrowth - and it was probably eaten by foxes, or fellow giant rats.
But resident Rebecca Holmes, 38, was in no doubt that large rodents are int eh area - after having cornered one in her house.
The mother-of-five said her cat Marie had cornered one in the lounge, but the rodent stood its ground - because it was around the same size as the domestic cat.
Laura Drake, of the Mammal Society, said that it could be a coypu - a South American rodent often referred to as a giant rat.
She said coypus were thought to have been eradicated in Britain 20 years ago but she said it was not impossible that some of the rodents survived the cull.
source: dailymail
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