A young woman has described how a rat climbed up her wheelchair and bit her on the hand in broad daylight in Belfast city centre.
Alex Bull said she was "very, very sick" after the rat "took a chunk" out of her finger at Royal Avenue, near the CastleCourt shopping centre.
And a pest control expert has now warned the city centre is "slowly becoming over-run with rat infestations".
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Speaking to The Nolan Show on BBC Radio Ulster, Alex recounted the "scary" experience.
"It was a really big shock," she said. "I was meeting up with my friends, just after class, because I was feeling a bit down. We met up outside of CastleCourt. We were just outside of CastleCourt next to a wee telephone box. There was a rat in the telephone box. It ended up scurrying over to me, climbing up my wheelchair, and then biting me on the hand. It was actually quite shocking. I didn't know what to do. It was honestly really quite scary. It actually was quite big, it was bigger than my hands, that's for sure.
"It just clame up to the wheel, climbed it, and then sat on my lap. It bit my finger. I kind of went into like a fight or flight response, honestly."
She continued: "On my right wheel, I put my hand down to block it because I was like 'oh, that's getting a bit too close'. It went past the wheel, did some crazy parkour, and went on to the bags that were sitting on my feet next to the wheel and then continued climbing.
"I threw my hands up into the air. I'm not much of a screamer. I remember my friends could see how scaly the tail was."
Alex said that, even after hospital care, she became unwell after the rat bite.
"Obviously I'm disabled and a wheelchair user," she said. "A lot of us are immuno-compromised or have auto-immune diseases. I got quite sick after. I had to go to hospital afterwards. I'm thinking, if there are other people with mobility aids, and I've heard that there's an increasing rat problem within Belfast now - in the daylight hours. That puts disabled people at risk and I feel like, really, it's a public health issue.
"I got bitten and I feel like I got quite lucky. Whenever I went to the hospital I received treatment, I got a tetanus shot, I got antibiotics. Even though I was quite sick - I was very, very sick that night, vomiting, I had a temperature - I was thinking to myself what if this was somebody else."
She continued: "It took a chunk out of me. It's healing up well now, though. I didn't feel all that bad after the bite. I was very emotionally distressed. I was crying after it. I remember we called the medical services and we were like 'what do we do, do we go to hospital?' They instructed us to go to hospital immediately."
Asked if what happened would put her off going back to the city centre, she said: "Honestly, yeah. I have not been well these past few days. I've been recovering. I wasn't well yesterday, even. Now, every time I think about CastleCourt I get worried. What if it happens again? I'm really worried about other people as well. What if it was a baby?"
A pest control expert also contacted the programme, and warned: "Unfortunately, Belfast at this time is slowly becoming over-run with rat infestations. It was only three or four weeks ago I went to a commercial property not far away - just around the corner from Royal Avenue. I pulled the van up outside the commercial building I was servicing and there was a , let's just say an elderly lady, started screaming literally opposite the van. I looked over, and there was a rat actually running behind, just lobbing behind her. I jumped out, obviously, and dealt with the situation.
"Listen, I deal with them seven days a week. I can tell you now, it's a serious, serious problem at the moment. I'm seven days a week, flat out. My phone does not stop.
"The general public might not be seeing the rats running up the street, but I can tell you now there's a serious problem with rats in Belfast city centre."
A Belfast City Council spokesperson, in a statement, said: “We are aware of this incident and appreciate the distress that this has caused. Council takes a proactive approach to pest control in the city. The vast majority of our service is focused on supporting domestic properties through advice and inspections."
The council statement continued: “We also carry out a sewer baiting programme in the city, on behalf of NI Water, treating thousands of manholes each year. Teams of officers routinely provide advice and guidance to businesses on best environmental health practice."
The spokesperson added: "Social habits like littering and discarding food scraps can attract rats. This is something we actively discourage through our various anti-litter campaigns, and we would again remind residents to please dispose of all litter in the bins provided."
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