DISGUSTED locals claim giant rats “as large as rabbits” roam their streets in one of Britain’s worst fly-tipping hotspots.
Residents in Newport, south east Wales, say they are “worse off than the third world” as rubbish is frequently dumped on the streets.
Council officials have installed CCTV and operate frequent inspections in a desperate bid to crack down on the fly-tipping scourge.
But the area has now been dubbed Wales’ “fly-tipping capital” by fuming locals.
Newport’s Pottery Road and Pillgwenlly are understood to be some of the worst “hot spots”, according to fed-up residents.
Disgruntled Shane Williams said: “Between fly tipping and all the overgrown areas, the issue continues.
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“They are as big as rabbits and a boy in the street was bemused at the sight of me taking photos of them.
“The rats have been in the street for ages and it affects the whole west side of Newport.
“I’ve talked to some of the residents in Duffryn and they’ve all seen rats running down there.”
Shane, who used to live abroad, said parts of Newport compare to a third world country.
“I used to live in Egypt and there are more rats in Newport than cockroaches in the streets of Egypt,” he continued.
“There are parts of Newport that are worse off than the third world.”
Newport City Council said residents should notify officials about rat sightings.
A spokesperson said: “We ask for people to report it to us if they think there is an issue in a particular area.
“We do offer a pest control service, but that’s for issues within properties.
“Regarding fly-tipping on Pottery Road, we’ve installed CCTV cameras at this site to monitor the issue, and our teams regularly check the site for waste, but if anyone has any details about any instance of fly-tipping here, again we’d ask people to please contact us to report it.”
This comes after we reported how residents were left disgusted after discovering an enormous 22-inch rat in a UK home.
The rodent was found at a house in Redcar and Cleveland and left hundreds repulsed after a picture was shared on social media by local politicians.
While it is unknown how it accessed the property, it is believed that it was nesting somewhere in the home.
Elsewhere, rats the size of cats were caught causing mayhem in an Asda.
The monster vermin were filmed scuttling down the aisles to the horror of onlookers.
In one video, staff spotted a rat diving under shelves and threw a caution cleaning sign towards it, forcing the vermin to make a run for it.