A MOTHER was horrified when she saw a giant rat bounding through her garden.

Amy Louise Hammond, 27, from Durrington in Worthing, could not believe her eyes when she saw the heavily rounded rodent, measuring about 2ft long, emerge from the bike shed.

The mum-of-three said: “It was enormous.

“My daughter, Alexia, who is only 11, said she saw a rat in the shed when she went to get her bike.

“I said ‘oh come on stop being dramatic, it’s probably a mouse’ but oh my God it was absolutely huge.

“I just thought I can’t let the young ones near the garden with that,

“My husband has size ten feet and the rat’s body alone was the same size as one of his shoes.”

The Argus:

The rat then squeezed through a hole under a fence into the neighbour’s garden.

She said: “My husband, Ash, put a bit of board to block it coming back but a couple of days later it was there again. Hard one to miss.”

The rat was then seen scuttling around the neighbours garden on the other side.

The family were quoted about £70 for a professional exterminator.

So instead they decided to team up with the neighbours to catch it themselves.

After tearing up most of the decking in both their’s and the neighbour’s gardens, the supersized rat was ambushed and killed after about three days of searching for it.

Amy said: “I would have preferred to have maybe caught it and relocated it but it was just impossible.

“I was so worried because I have a two-year-old toddler and a six year old as well and the thought of them getting bitten or catching diseases when in the garden terrified me. It was not worth thinking about.”