Tehran, the capital of Iran, is battling an invasion of "genetically mutated" giant rats.
Iran has sent in sniper teams to clear Tehran's streets of the massive rodents weighting up to five kilos plaguing 26 districts of the Iranian capital, the city's environmental agency said.
"They seem to have had a genetic mutation, probably as a result of radiations and the chemical used on them," Ismail Kahram, Teheran city council environment adviser and university professor Ismail Kahram told Qudsonline.ir.
"They are now bigger and look different. These are changes that normally take millions of years of evolution. They have jumped from 60 grams to five kilos, and cats are now smaller than them."
The "mutated rats" have been running rampant in the capital, as cats are scared off by their giant size and traditional poison appear to have no effect on them.
To stop them storming into restaurants' backyards and scavenging public waste containers, the council has deployed ten sniper teams armed with infra-red sighted rifles.
"We use chemical poisons to kill the rats during the day and the snipers at night, so it has become a 24/7 war," the head of the environment agency, Mohammad Hadi Heydarzadeh, said.
Rats' carcasses are burnt or buried in lime.
So far 2,205 rats have been shot dead, but the war is far from being won and the council is planning to bring the sniper team up to 40.
伊朗首都德黑兰正与发生了“基因变异”的巨鼠展开“斗争”。
伊朗环境部门表示，伊朗已出动狙击手小组来捕杀德黑兰街头的巨鼠。这些巨鼠体重达5公斤，已经在德黑兰首都的26个地区肆虐。
德黑兰市议会的环保顾问、大学教授伊斯梅尔•卡赫兰表示：“这些老鼠似乎已经发生了基因变异，很可能是受到辐射和毒鼠药里化学物质影响。”
“它们现在体型巨大，看起来很吓人。通常完成这样的演变需要数百万年。它们的体重从60克上升到5公斤，比猫大多了。”
这些“变种巨鼠”一直在德黑兰肆虐，由于个头儿太大会把猫吓跑，传统的鼠药对它们也无效。
为了把它们赶出餐馆后院和公共垃圾桶，德黑兰市议会派出10名狙击手灭鼠。这些狙击手还配备了红外视线步枪。
伊朗环境部门负责人Mohammad Hadi Heydarzadeh说：“我们白天用鼠药灭鼠，晚上狙击手捕杀，现在已经成为了一场7乘24小时的战争。
巨鼠的尸体会被焚烧或者用石灰掩埋。
目前，已有2205只巨鼠被射杀，但人们还没有取得人鼠大战的胜利。市议会计划将狙击手的人数增加到40人。