Is this the biggest rat in the world?

Recently a British gas engineer found a rat that he claims to be bigger than his dog.

Tony Smith, 46, found this rat in a bush near a kid’s playground in Hackney Downs, north London, according to Sky News.

Smith says that the rat weighed around 25lbs and is around 4ft long (the measure includes the length of the tail). However, the average body length of an adult rat is 9 to 11 inches, with a tail of 7 to 9 inches.

Also read: Video shows rats being boiled alive to make Chinese rat kebabs

As a comparison the body of your average brown rat is up to 40cm in length with a tail shorter than the head and body, and about 350g - 500g in weight. They prefer ground living and burrowing but sometime have been know to climb. In urban areas there is often ready access to food, water and shelter. The brown rat is the only species to occur in sewers in the UK," a spokesperson for the pest control company told Telegraph.co.uk.

No one has ever come across such a big rats, and if the reports are true then this might be the largest species of rat in the world and no doubt one of the biggest found on UK soil. Some even say that this creature is bigger than a cat or a Jack Russell.

“This is the largest rat I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I’ve got a cat and a Jack Russell and it was bigger than both of those,” says Tony.

However many claim that it’s not true and there is a perspective trick involved.