A PLAGUE of disease-carrying rats was threatening to invade towns and villages throughout Britain, a shock report warned.
And East Lancashire environmental health departments had already taken on more staff to catch the slippery potential killers.
The rat population had increased by one fifth in just 12 months, according to an Institution of Environmental Health Officers' study.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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