At New York’s Marcy Houses apartment complex, huge rats have been sighted and reported for at least six years now – and, one of these petrifying creatures, a 3-foot-rat, was recently killed by a worker of The Housing Authority!

According to experts, the huge rat that Jose Rivera, 48, bagged with a pitchfork is something called the Gambian pouched rat which is often kept as a pet, although its imports have been banned in the States for decades – ever since these rodents caused an outbreak of monkey-pox that made 100 people ill.

As per Paul Calle, from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Gambian pouched rat cannot reproduce with other species of rats since they belong to a different genus.

Meanwhile, talking about his kill, Rivera told the Daily News that the rat came running out of a rat hole with two other rats who escaped. About the giant rat that he stabbed, the city housing worker said: “I hit it one time and it was still moving. I hit it another time and that's when it died.” He also added that though he is not scared of rats, he was a bit afraid of being bitten.

Apparently, the size of the Gambian rat has had the Marcy House residents unnerved, with Pam Davis, a 43-year-old resident, telling the Daily News: “They (the rats) are here day and night. We don't dodge bullets. We dodge rats. They're so big, they should charge them rent”!