Giant rats as big as cats have killed and eaten two babies in separate attacks in South Africa's squalid townships this week.
Lunathi Dwadwa, three, was killed as she slept in her parent's shack in the Khayelitsha slum outside Cape Town and another girl was killed in Soweto township near Johannesburg the same day.
Little Lunathi was sleeping on a makeshift bed on the floor of her family's breeze block and corrugated iron home on Sunday night when she died. Her puzzled parents didn't even hear her scream.
When her mother discovered her lifeless body, she saw that her daughter's eyes had been gouged out.
Bukiswa Dwadwa, 27, said: 'I can't forget how ugly my child looked after her eyes were ripped out.
'She was eaten from her eyebrows to her cheeks, her other eye was hanging by a piece of flesh.'
Her father Mncedisi Mokoena said police told him: 'Nothing could have done that but rats'
And today police revealed that a baby girl died in the Soweto township when she was attacked by rats while her teenage mother was out with friends.
'We were called to the scene of the death of an infant due to a rat attack on Monday morning at around 9am,' said police officer Bongani Mhlongo.
'The mother of the child was arrested on charges of culpable homicide and negligence.'
The deaths appear to be part of a spate of deadly rat attacks in the country.
Last month, 77-year-old grandmother Nomathemba Joyi died after giant rats chewed off the right side of her face.
Residents of South Africa's impoverished townships say the giant rats grow up to three-foot long, including their tails, and have front teeth over an inch long.
The suspects in the baby attacks are believed to be African Giant Pouched Rats, a species only distantly related to UK rats, but native to sub-Saharan Africa - and the biggest in the world.
They are nocturnal, omnivorous and can produce up to 50 young a year. Some tribal people breed them for food.
They thrive in the townships' filthy conditions and feast on residents' uncollected rubbish. - dailymail
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Baby dies after 'rat attack' in South African shack
A baby girl died after being attacked by rats in a South African shack while her teenage mother was out with friends, local media reported on Thursday.
The dead infant was found covered in rat bites after neighbours heard her crying in pain during the night while her mother was away from the Soweto shack she shares with school friends, said The New Age newspaper.
"We were called to the scene of the death of an infant due to a rat attack on Monday morning at around 9:00 am," said police officer Bongani Mhlongo.
"The mother of the child was arrested on charges of culpable homicide and negligence."
The baby was not dressed warmly and the cold Johannesburg winter could have contributed to her death, said Mhlongo.
"The young girl's child was covered in blood," a neighbour told the newspaper.
"I could see that the child was dead already, but this girl kept bathing her, we told her to stop but she did not want to accept that her child was dead."
The mother, a high school pupil, was released on bail. - africasia
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Giant Rats Viciously Kill, Eat Babies
Huge rats the size of a cat have killed and eaten babies in two separate attacks this week.
The attacks happened in slums near Johannesburg and Cape Town of South Africa.
A three-year-old girl from the Khayelitsha slum was killed by the giant rat as she slept. Nobody heard a sound, until her 27-year-old mother discovered her daughter -with her eyes gouged out. She was apparently eat from her eyebrows to her cheeks.
In a separate attack, a baby girl from Soweto town was attacked by giant rats. Her teenager mother, who had been out with friends, was arrested on charges of culpable homicide and negligence.
The suspected species of the attacks are believed to be the African Giant Pouched Rats, a species native to sub-Saharan Africa. They are the biggest rats in the world and can grow up to three feet long. Its front teeth can grow over one inch long, and they are nocturnal omnivores, capable of productin up to 50 young per year.
The giant rats thrive in squalid towns. - ibtimes
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