A shopper was left "uncontrollably vomiting" after finding a "dead mouse" inside a packet of shop-bought rice.

Richard Leech posted a picture on Twitter of the Golden Sun microwaveable pilau rice he purchased at Lidl, inside which he and his wife claimed they saw a squashed rodent.

Mr Leech alleged his house had been left smelling of "cooked mouse".

Messaging Lidl on social media, Mr Leech asked: "If you could let me know how this mouse got into my packet of rice?"

"Now my house stinks of cooked mouse and my wife is uncontrollably vomiting."

One person responded on Twitter saying it was "bang out of order" for Mr Leech to have attempted cooking the mouse, adding that it would "take weeks" for it to recover.

Others posted their condolences to "Stuart Lidl".

The supermarket chain have apologised and said incidents of mould were "very rare" but could occur as the result of an extremely small hole in the pack.

A Lidl spokesman said: "It is never our intention for a customer to be dissatisfied in any way, and we were extremely sorry to see that this particular product did not meet the high standards that both we and our customers expect.

"Following contact with the customer, the matter was immediately escalated to our quality assurance team who, through their initial investigation with the supplier, were able to identify the foreign substance as mould.

Whilst very rare, this can occur as a result of an extremely small hole in the pack.

"We only ever work with reputable accredited suppliers who have extensive controls and procedures in place to verify the quality of products.

"We are, therefore, very disappointed that our expected high standards were not met on this occasion, and are in ongoing contact with the customer on the matter."