A HORRIFIED mother discovered a rat had been using her baby's blanket as a bed.

And Mrs Heather Murphy (34) claims the area around her James Street North home has become over-run with rodents since the demolition of Radcliffe Paper Mill.

She made her shocking discovery when the family returned home from holiday.

"It was late at night when we got home. I picked up Michael's blanket which I'd left on a pile of curtain fabric downstairs and put him to bed.

"The next morning I smelled the familiar ratty odour which seemed to be coming from the curtain fabric. I saw that it was covered in rat hair and stank. There were rat droppings nearby. I was horrified when I remembered the blanket had been on top of it so went running upstairs."

Sure enough 16-month-old Michael's blanket was smelly and had hairs on it. More worryingly it was torn and shredded in parts, suggesting that a rat had actually been nesting in it while the family were away.

"Shortly afterwards Michael began vomiting and had a temperature, so we called the doctor just to make sure he hadn't caught something from the rat."

It is not the first time Mrs Murphy has suffered from rats in the house.

"They are quite old houses with crumbly mortar. When they pulled down the paper mill we began to see rats in the streets and two got into my house. To try and stop them I ripped out the old back door, installed patio doors and filled in as many holes and vulnerable areas as I could, but the rats have still managed to get in. I don't know what to do."