A plaque of huge rats is terrorising families in Cowley and making peoples' lives a misery, residents have claimed.

Families living in Morris Crescent, Shelley Road and Milton Road, Cowley, said they are virtually prisoners in their own homes and are terrified the rats will harm their small children or their pets.

Margaret O'Keefe, of Morris Crescent, said people are at their wits' end.

She said: "Everyone is absolutely demented. The whole place is in uproar.

"I have never seen rats so big in my life. I am frantic."

The source of the rodent invasion is a mystery, but one resident, Joan Blackstock, of Cowley Road, said she has seen the rats coming out of the drains in the road.

She said: "They are coming out at night and walking up the street. There's a whole gang of them."

Irene Cassidy, who lives on Milton Road, believes it is time something is done. She said: "We got in touch with the environmental health department and someone came to see us on August 14, but we've heard nothing since."

She added: "I've lived here for 38 years and this is the first time I've seen anything like it.

"To see something like these rats running by is frightening."

City councillor Pat Stannard believed rats were a growing problem that needed to be addressed. He promised the council would start talking about the problem.

He added: "Environmental health are going to do a survey of the area next week but if it is an enormous job we will have to get Thames Water to pay for some of it."

If the rats are coming from the sewers, the responsibility for getting rid of them is shared between water companies and the council.

However, a spokesman for Thames Water said that cases of rats living in sewers were now very rare and they had not dealt with a rat living in a sewer for over a year.

She said: "The majority of rats now live on surface level. Modern sewers aren't really suitable for rats to breed."

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