A Chinese restaurant has seen almost $200m wiped off its stock market valuation after local media reported that a pregnant customer found a dead rat in her hotpot.
An employee Xiabuxiabu restaurant in Weifang city, eastern China, allegedly offered the customer 20,000 yuan (£2,200) to pay for an abortion after she expressed concern about the impact on her unborn child of eating food from the hotpot in which she found the boiled rodent.
Shares of Xiabuxiabu Catering crashed 6.1 per cent on Monday and a further 11 per cent on Tuesday, after the grizzly find last week.
Photos and video of the rat being fished out of a pot of steaming broth were widely shared online, prompting authorities to temporarily close the restaurant.
A man from Weifang named as Mr Ma told Shanghai-based Kankan News that he and his family were eating at the restaurant when, after a few bites, his wife found a dead rat in the soup.
Mr Ma was quoted as saying that restaurant staff had told him: “If you are worried about the baby, then we’ll give you 20,000 yuan to abort it.”
The customer said he turned down the offer because he wanted his wife to undergo a medical examination before accepting any compensation.
Xiabuxiabu reportedly issued a statement - now deleted - on Chinese social networking site Weibo, saying that its own investigation had found that the restaurant’s hygiene procedures were not the cause of the problem.
