Firefighters rescue fat rat stuck in sewer cover in Germany
- Overweight rodent found itself in trouble after it tried to squeeze through a small gap in a sewer cover
A multi-agency rescue operation has taken place in the town of Bensheim in Germany after a tubby rat became stuck in a manhole cover.
The rat, still plump with winterspeck – which translates literally as winter bacon and refers to extra pounds piled on in the colder months – became stuck after it tried to squeeze through a small gap in the sewer cover.
The Auerbach volunteer fire brigade was called in, as was the Rhein Neckar animal rescue team, and together a team of about eight rescuers was able to raise the cover and pull the rat free.
“The rat had quite a lot of winter fat and got stuck on its hips – nothing was going forward and nothing back,” animal rescuer Michael Sehr told news agency DPA.
Photos of the rat showed its head and rotund torso poking out of the hole, with its bottom half obscured by the sewer cover.
In one image it seemed to almost be calling for help.
The fire brigade said the rat escaped unhurt.