A TERRIFIED mother today told of her terror at finding a rat sitting inside her baby's cot after a plague of rodents descended on her home.

Mrs Tina Taylor, 20, lives in a private rented house in Albert Street, Burnley, with her two children Cory, three, and seven-month-old Nicole.

At 8.45am yesterday she went to collect her daughter's dummy but when she went into the bedroom she found a rat inside in the cot.

Environmental health officers are investigating her claims that the rats may have been forced out of the derelict former Mojo cash and carry building, off Eastham Place, when workers arrived to begin renovation work.

Mrs Taylor said: "I felt sick and I cried. I just picked up my baby and ran out of the house. I rang environmental health officers but they said one person was off sick. "On Sunday I had to take my little boy to sleep at my mother's house because he was frightened because he could hear the rats in the cavity walls running about and screeching.

"I had to tell him it was a woman making the noises and he asked me to tell her to be quiet - but I can't tell the rats to be quiet.

"This is the first time I have seen a rat inside the house, but it has been like a stampede with them running about the cavity walls for the last four weeks and I have had pest control officers out who put pellets down under the floor boards."

Mrs Taylor said she has been on Burnley Council's housing list for four months but has not been offered a property yet.

"I was happy to wait until my children were a bit older," she said. "Now all I want to do is leave."

Environmental health and cleansing manager Andrew Mason said: "There was a delay in officers attending because one person was taken ill and the other was dealing with a dog which had parvo virus so we had to take special precautions to clean out the van and equipment. "We attended and found that the bait we had put down earlier had not been touched and we sent two officers back to the property today to check the premises out thoroughly.

"Obviously any parent would be concerned if they believe or suspect there is a problem with rats or mice and we will be laying more bait if there is something for us to deal with.

"We deal with hundreds of rat and mice problems each year and it is extremely rare that it gets to a point where we would look to move people out."

Housing options manager at Burnley Council Steve Tilly said the matter was being taken seriously and his department was waiting for reports from environmental health to decide the best course of action.

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