MELBOURNE’S status as a street art destination may be under threat as another Banksy stencil was found in ruins.

A tour guide discovered the iconic stencil featuring three rats in AC/DC Lane in a skip last week, apparently drilled out of the wall by careless construction workers.

The artwork was one of about nine stencils painted by Banksy on a trip to Melbourne in 2003.

Until last week, the rat had been a popular tourist attraction, according to Melbournewalks.com owner Meyer Eidelson.

A photo posted by Eve Alexiadis (@missevea) on Mar 18, 2016 at 4:53am PDT

“This had been part of the largest group of artwork painted by Banksy in Australia, I now know of only two left in the city centre,” he said.

Mr Eidelson has taken thousands of art-loving tourists through the lane, which had originally been home to three Banksy stencils before the others were destroyed in 2014.

“ACDC lane was seminal in the beginning of the street art movement, and now the final Banksy is gone from it, the entire city has been damaged as far as we are concerned,” he said.

media_camera Another piece of Banksy graffiti stencil artwork in Cocker Alley, off Flinders Lane near Swanston Street. Picture: Mike Keating

media_camera Banksy is known for his provocative street art.

media_camera British street artist Banksy's only known surviving work in Italy - ‘Madonna with a pistol’. Picture: AFP

“You can’t imagine how priceless it is to show people the rarest and most valuable group of stencils in Australia; it’s not just history for visitors and locals, its heritage for all Australians.”

The stencil is believed to have been accidentally destroyed by builders who had been drilling to make a doorway for a new bar on the lane.

Melbourne has lost six Banksy artworks since 2010, when another rat stencil was accidentally removed by cleaners.

In 2013, another pair on a wall in Fitzroy was lost forever after being painted over by a homeowner.

geir.o’rourke@news.com.au