A shocking report has exposed a huge rodent epidemic in Ealing and suggests more than 12,000 rat complaints have been made to the council since 2012.

Published by London Assembly Member Susan Hall, the report reveals more than six complaints were made every single day to Ealing Council in the past five years.

Local authorities in London received more than 180,000 complaints about rats and rice in that period, which is more than 100 complaints per day.

The report found the number of complaints received by councils is on the rise – a total of 30,119 were logged in 2016/17 - a 10% increase from the previous year.

The report, entitled Rat Land, says London is facing a similar problem to Paris, where rats reportedly now outnumber residents by two to one and have caused public parks to be closed.

Ms Hall first began researching the extent of London's rodent problem after a video of scavenging rats in Harrow went viral earlier this year.

The London Assembly member now says she wants the mayor to lead local authorities in cleaning up the city's streets and minimising the city's rodent problem.

More than 12,000 rat complaints have been made to Ealing Council since 2012

“The figures in my rat report suggest London's crawling, and the problem is getting worse,” Ms Hall said.

“We've seen in Paris what can happen when increasing populations of rodents are ignored.

“Not only do they present a public health issue, they risk damaging the reputation of individual boroughs and harming the global view of London as a clean attractive city."

She added: "If we want to avoid our clean city being overrun by rats like Paris and Harrow, we need a co-ordinated approach to tackle this problem, led by the mayor.

“The recommendations in this report will go some way to cleaning up London's streets and ratting out our city's nuisance rodents.”

London's rat problem is on the rise

Evidence provided by rodent experts, including Rentokil, suggests conditions for rats will continue to improve as London's density increases.

More litter and food waste on streets, as well as unseasonably warm winter weather, have been blamed for the rat epidemic – which has risen by 19% nationwide.

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