Photos: Giant rat found in Hackney, London

An extraordinary photo has emerged of a huge 'four-foot rat' found by a gas engineer in London. The picture shows the rodent being held up to the camera after he was found by engineer Tony Smith, while he was working on a block of flats in Hackney, north London.

The giant mutant rat, claimed to weigh upwards of 25lbs, was spotted lying dead in a bush next to a popular children's playground.The rodent was discovered near where children play which backed onto a railway track near Hackney Downs, north London, on Thursday.

Tony snapped a picture of the rat being held by electrician friend James Green, 46, to the glee and disgust of his friends.He said the rat was the same length as a four-year-old boy.

In the picture, Tony is holding the rat close to the camera, making it hard to gauge how big it really is, but he insists it was 4ft long.

"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." He said

Tony explained that the estate where he was working has an infestation of rats, so there is poison left around to catch the enormous creatures.
He said: