Pest control experts from a council have played down claims that giant rats are plaguing an estate.

Bradford Council, West Yorks., said it had found no evidence of their existence, following reports that a 30-inch rodent – dubbed "Ratzilla" – was shot dead.

But residents in the area claimed to have seen rats as long as a loaf of bread and others they have mistaken for cats.

Florence Howell, 74, said: "I didn't know what it was at first, I thought it was Angela's daughter's cat and it had caught a mouse but when it turned its head it was a rat.

"It must be all this digging involved in the new houses that started this, some of those houses have been derelict for eight years and when they started excavating them, the rats moved out."

Kath Tompkins, 60, said: "We were standing out on the street about three weeks ago at about 4pm and this rat came up from near the front of our house, it was about the size of a loaf of bread."