A fat rat that got stuck in a manhole cover in a Germany has been freed after a large-scale rescue operation.
The rodent was found wedged after it had apparently tried to clamber out of a sewer in the town of Bensheim, around 35 miles south of Frankfurt, on Sunday.
After being discovered in the helpless situation, nine firefighters, aided by animal rescue officers from non-profit organisation Berufstierrettung Rhein Neckar, where dispatched to free the rat.
“At first we tried to free the animal ourselves. We took leather work gloves and tried to carefully pull it out of the hole,” one local resident, named only as Juliana H, told Bild.
“It was terribly scared, screamed terribly, and bit into the glove. That was actually the plan - we thought if she bites her, she'll be easier to pull out.
“We noticed very quickly that it did not work that way. And we knew we needed to get help.”
Rescuers blamed the rotund rodent’s “winterspeck”, which translates as “winter bacon” or “winter fat”, for landing it in the sticky situation.
The local fire brigade said it had dispatched firefighters to the incident, who were able to remove the drain cover, before pushing the rodent’s rear through the gap.
“To free it gently, the grate was raised by the fire brigade, so the rat could be removed from the other side,” Berufstierrettung Rhein Neckar said in a statement. “The rat was released unharmed.”
