Here is the gnawing scenes that one resident managed to catch on camera last night in Dublin city as the capital continues to be plagued by rats.
Locals have been crying out for help when it comes to the furry infestation in the area that has left a huge and negative dent on the community.
The problem came to a head last night when a fox was spotted transporting a dead rat that it had just killed from one estate to another.
The cunning fox mauled the rat in an estate near Aungier Street before picking it up in its mouth and bringing it across the road and into York Street flats to devour it.
Horrified resident, Ryan Mooney, captured the unbelievably vile video telling Dublin Live: "Here you can see the fox, strutting out of the flats and across the road with a rat in its mouth that it's after killing.
"And what's even better, he's bringing the dead rat into my flats to eat him."
Sinn Fein TD for Dublin Bay South, Chris Andrews said that this was just one small example of the massive rat problem in the area.
He said: "This is just a stone's throw from Stephen's Green.
"I was talking to a resident not far from here in February and a rat ran through my legs and into the resident's garden."
He continued: "There is a lot that can be done but the council don't seem to want to do it.
"I recently asked the Minister for Health to put in place a pilot scheme to tackle the threat of rats to public health.
"The drains are badly damaged in the flat complexes and the rats love that and as for the bin storage in flat complexes, it's like a giant attraction for rats."
Councillor Andrews has called on the Council and Department of Health to take responsibility of what is now an 'urgent public health and safety issue at this stage'.
One of the solutions Chris has motioned is the implementation of bait boxes in the area but this has been rejected by the council.
They say that bait boxes with live bait can not be left over ground anymore as these can cause secondary poisoning in other animals.
They told Councillor Andrews that bait boxes with monitoring bait (fake food which would show bite marks) can be left.
They said: "The purpose of the monitoring bait is to show a rat is present. However as our call outs follow sightings of rats anyway this would be of limited value.
"In addition laying and monitoring these would divert from tackling known instances where rats are present."
They added: "Adding to the problem is the fact that Pest Control companies can no longer use the stronger pesticides as used previously because of changed regulations."
