FURIOUS ATTACK

Southland Times, Issue 22215, 6 January 1934, Page 7

FURIOUS ATTACK

MAN AND WIFE BITTEN BY RAT. Melbourne, December 26. A graphic account of how she and her husband were attacked last night by a big, vicious rat, which it took them more than five minutes to fight off, was given to-day, by Mrs F. Dunstan of Gipps street, Collingwood. “I was .lying on the sofa in the kitchen reading,” said Mrs Dunstan, “when I heard a faint scratching noise on the floor. I looked down and saw a fat brown rat, about eight inches long, sitting in a crouching position, a few feet away. Before I had time to call to my husband the rat sprang. It seemed to fly through the air, and landed on the sofa near my hand. I screamed to my husband, who came running in from the next room. The rat did not seem at all afraid, but kept on scratching my arms and face. “My husband tried to drive it off by hitting it. He then grabbed it in his hands and tried to pull it off the sofa. The rat turned on him, and ran up his arm. It dug its teeth into his flesh, while all the time he was trying frantically to dislodge it with his free hand. Finally, he threw it to the floor, and it scurried out of the back door into the yard. The rat did not appear hungry, and seemed to attack me out of sheer viciousness.”