A selfie-taking rat has delivered a rude awakening to a New York man after jumping on him as he lay passed out on a train platform.

Don Richards was waiting for the subway in Brooklyn earlier this week when he came upon the rat taking up residence on a nearby man, Fox 61 reports .

The rat climbed up onto the sleeping man's lap, startling him awake, and then crawled up his shirt as he jumped up in shock, dropping his mobile phone.

The 'selfie' taken by the rat.

Before he was startled awake, the rat's paws somehow set off the phone's camera, giving the rodent an inadvertent – and somewhat cute - selfie.