Monster 15-inch rat terrorises Swedish family after chewing through CONCRETE wall to make its home in their kitchen

A 15-inch 'Viking rat' caught in a suburb to the Swedish capital

Family got suspicious when their cat refused to go into the kitchen

Giant rodent had gnawed its way in and was living behind the dishwasher



A Swedish family suffered the shock of a lifetime when they discovered that the 'kitchen mouse' that had their cat running around in circles was in fact a gigantic monster rat.

The Bengtsson-Korsås family first noticed something was wrong when their cat Enok refused to enter the kitchen in their flat in Solna, north-west Stockholm.

The rat measured 15 inches, without its tail, and had made it into the family’s flat by gnawing a tunnel between a wooden panel and concrete.

Ratigan: The gigantic rat measured 15in from nose to the base of its tail, and made its way into the flat in north Stockholm by chewing through the wall

The family did not discover their gigantic guest until it was time to take out the bins.

‘I was terrified. It was so huge that I barely saw what it was and I jumped up on the kitchen table,’ Signe Bengtsson-Korsås told Aftonbladet.

The rat had made itself comfortable behind the family’s dishwasher and even caused a leak by chewing its way through the waterpipes.

Despite attempts from Mrs Bengtsson-Korsås and her two children to scare the rodent, the ‘Viking rat’ only grew bolder and eventually dared to venture out on the kitchen floor.

Viking rat: The monster rat, so big it scared family's cat refused to enter the kitchen for days, chewed through the pipes behind the dishwasher and even lived for several minutes after it was caught in a trap



Exterminators were called in and placed industry-sized traps to catch the rat, and less than a day later one of them snapped.

However, when the family checked, the trap was gone. The rat was so powerful that it had carried the trap with it, snapped around its neck.

‘It didn’t die when it went into the trap, but scurried away. It went underneath a wooden plant, where it got stuck and choked itself to death,’ Mr Bengtsson-Korsås said.