Just when you thought 2020 had had enough of terrifying news stories, another comes and bites you in the face.
It's already been an intense year for the United States, but now there's something else for people to worry about, as rats becomes more aggressive in their search for sustenance.
Americans are now under threat from a rise in rats who are starving due to the coronavirus outbreak, due to the lack of people cruising through city streets and leaving food rubbish everywhere.
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The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued a warning about 'unusual or aggressive' from rats across the country.
"Community-wide closures have led to a decrease in food available to rodents, especially in dense commercial areas," the CDC said in recently updated rodent-control guidelines.
"Some jurisdictions have reported an increase in rodent activity as rodents search for new sources of food. Environmental health and rodent control programs may see an increase in service requests related to rodents and reports of unusual or aggressive rodent behaviour."
If you think that this is all nonsense, take it from a New York City subway worker who was recently attacked by dozens of the rodents.
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Ryan Fischer, 35, is an engineer and safety inspector for the MTA, and was doing an inspection on the subway's R Line over the weekend when he stumbled upon so many rats that he lost count.
Fischer, who has 10 years experience working in the subway network, told Today's Five: "I turned the bend and with my flashlight saw at least forty or fifty rats all crawling all over each other and eating some large carcass.
"Seeing that caught me off guard big time. Like we see rats all the time, but like I was definitely caught off guard because usually its one or two max and they scatter when you put the light on them, but these guys didn't seem to notice me."
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But when they did notice him they thought he could be their next meal.
Ryan continued: "Then I felt things crawling up my legs, there were like three or four rats climbing up the back of my legs, they were so fast too it was unreal.
"Before I could start running they were scratching at my neck. I turned my flashlight and there were rats literally everywhere.
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"There were at least 30 of them jumping at me and latching on but I had long pants and a jacket of course so I was swiping off most of them, by the time I got out of the tunnel all but a few had retreated, kicked the last two.
"Never ever have I seen rats act like this."
Featured Image Credit: Eden, Janine and Jim (Flickr)