Thousands of sports fans who have flocked to Paris for the Olympics are in 'rat stew' as stormy weather brings cat-sized rats onto the streets.
That's the atmosphere so far after a storm soaked the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, sending rodents the size of cats out of the sewers onto the streets.
Up to 2 inches of rain fell in the French capital in 48 hours, forcing six million rats from their underground burrows. Not only does the sight of them strutting around restaurants and bars awe the onlookers who have traveled from around the world to witness the sporting showpiece.
But the health risk posed by their urine has already affected sporting events. Bacteria found in rat urine can cause leptospirosis, which causes flu-like symptoms and liver and kidney damage.
On Sunday 28 July, organizers canceled a planned training session for the Olympic triathlon due to unsafe levels of pollution in the River Seine. He said the high risk was a result of rain that marred Friday's opening ceremony and Saturday's tennis.
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Triathlons can be moved as long as pollution levels are low. Rats even attacked a Daily Star journalist reporting on sports in Paris as he sat down to dinner in the suburb of Bercy.
I saw it rustling around outside in the bush and then it came to me. It was huge - the size of a cat, she said. He wandered around looking for food and wasn't at all worried about the food sitting on the tables. When his friend showed up, a lot of tourists had had enough. The locals ignored them.
Another rat victim said: We were drinking at a bar near the beach volleyball stadium. When my partner looked down, one was an inch from his foot. He had no fear. Walked out. have been.
Paris has one of the largest rat populations in the world. Critics outnumber the capital's 2.2 million residents two to one. The 2007 hit animated comedy movie Ratatouille paid homage to him with a plot about a young rat named Remy who becomes one of the top chefs in town.
They are also prominent in French literature from Les Miserables to The Phantom of the Opera. In real life urban bigwigs take many steps to put them in the sewers during the games.
The Olympic venues were given a thorough cleaning to remove food and litter, vermin and sewer exits.
Mechanical traps and chemical solutions were deployed in areas with large rat populations, such as the park behind the Eiffel Tower where beach volleyball is taking place and the Louvre gardens where Olympic picnics are being burned - both common. There are popular picnic spots.
City rat catchers were brought in to advise organizers on how to design games sites to keep them clean.
Before the Olympics began, the deputy mayor in charge of waste, Antoine Guillou, declared: I'm not worried at all, on the contrary the Games will certainly help us to show that the idea that you have a lot of rats in Paris run away from, there are some that we deal with but they are not peculiar to Paris, nor on the scale that is sometimes sarcastically suggested.
Deputy Mayor Ann Claire Boux, who has responsibility for public health, said she doesn't want to eradicate the rats - just keep them underground.
Ultimately, no one plans to eradicate Paris rats. They are useful in maintaining sewers he said. The thing is, they should live in the sewers.
But the unseasonable storm that hit the start of the Games - preparing for the first wet opening ceremony in 72 years - upset the plans of the city's bigwigs. Preparations for the running and cycling legs of the triathlon went ahead as scheduled on Sunday 28th.
Olympic chiefs said tests carried out on Saturday showed water quality levels that, in the view of the international federation, World Triathlon, did not provide sufficient guarantees to allow the event to take place.
Experts are checking the Seine's water quality every day at 4am and hope it will improve before the main event on Tuesday 30. Paris authorities have spent £1.2 billion to improve water quality ahead of the Games.
It also includes the installation of a 46,000 cubic meter storage basin that holds the equivalent of 20 Olympic pools of rain and wastewater to reduce toxic levels in the river. Parisians were banned from swimming in the river a century ago, with Olympic athletes last allowed to do so in 1900 at the city's first games.
The city's mayor, Anne Hildalgo (Corr), took a dip in the water earlier this month to prove it's clean enough. A previous planned swim was canceled after tests revealed the presence of faeces 10 times the legal limit.
Paris has a combined sewer system which means that both waste and stormwater run through the same pipes. During heavy rains, pipes can reach capacity and sewage water flows into the sewer instead of being sent to a treatment plant.
According to the British Pest Control Association, storms or heavy rain can trigger the 'sudden breeding of rats'.
Rain and wind during storms will damage natural nesting sites for rats and force them to move to higher ground. Overflowing sewage systems and stormwater drains will also force them to seek warm dry shelter it said.
