Iranian sniper teams are now hunting "genetically mutated" rats in Tehran's streets, according to Umberto Bacchi of The International Business Times.
The capital's residents kill about one million rats annually, but the rats continue to become larger and more prevalent.
"They seem to have had a genetic mutation, probably as a result of radiations and the chemical used on them," Tehran city council environment adviser Ismail Kahram said. "They are now bigger and look different. These are changes [that] normally take millions of years of evolution ... cats are now smaller than them."
The council has deployed ten sniper teams "armed with infra-red sighted rifles" because the unusually large rodents — which weigh up to 11 pounds — scare off cats and seem unfazed by traditional rat poisons.
"We use chemical poisons to kill the rats during the day and the snipers at night, so it has become a 24/7 war," Mohammad Hadi Heydarzadeh, the head of the environmental agency said.
Bacchi notes that 2,205 rats have been shot dead so far, and the council plans to deploy 30 more sniper teams.
Official figures as of 2010 indicate that rats outnumber citizens in southern Tehran by six times.
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