It looks like a scene from a horror movie, when at night hundreds of white rats rush along the black asphalt along an empty highway along which a car is driving, in the headlights.
For several days, the small Italian town of Gattolino has been fighting crazy rodents. The locals nicknamed them "rabid white rats" for their amazing appearance and even stranger behavior.
According to the stories of the inhabitants of the town, these rats are not afraid of anything insolently jumping in front of the cars, from time to time attacking each other. They reportedly not only jump in front of cars, but also devour each other. One firefighter told a local newspaper, "I've never seen anything like it before."
Authorities in the northern Italian province of Cesena have set up a special task force of firefighters, police and sanitary inspectors to deal with an emergency that has been brought to the fore.
Francesca Lucci, environmental advisor to the Mayor of Cesena, told the local newspaper Resto del Carlino: “The problem is dealt with by professionals and experts. Environmentalists and public health workers are working with local police to determine if rats are carrying certain diseases."
What caused this spontaneous migration of crazy rats is unknown. One theory is that the rats are leaving an old pigeon farm that was closed in the area last year. “It is very likely that the rats ran out of food inside the enclosures, and as soon as the food came to an end, the rats broke free to find food in the countryside,” the local mayor told reporters.
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Piero, who works at a sports bar in Gattolino, said another aspect of rat behavior stands out. According to him, these crazy rats even understand words and letters: as soon as they reach the main road sign of the intersection of the city of Gattolino, they turn around and run away. “Rats are not stupid,” says Pierrot. "They know not to mess with a little cat" (Translated from Italian, Gattolino means "little cat").