A gruesome 'rat king' where a group of rats' tails become intertwined has been spotted in Estonia in an 'extremely rare' sighting.
The skin-crawling discovery, which is said to be an omen of an impending plague, was made by Johan Uibopuu and his mother in their chicken coop in Tartu.
They found 13 rats, two of which were already dead, tied together by their tails as they struggled to free themselves.
A gruesome 'rat king', where a group of rats' tails become intertwined, has been spotted in Estonia
The skin-crawling discovery was made by Johan Uibopuu in Tartu in his mother's chicken coop
Johan said: 'I was making the most of a quiet morning in Tartu when my mother phoned me, sounding quite upset.
'She had gone to feed the birds at the chicken coop when she saw a bundle of rats right at the entrance as she opened the door.
'When the shock wore off, she went to investigate and tried to remove them from her way, but they were firmly stuck to the ground.'
According to superstition, rat kings are a sign of an imminent plague and this is one of the only live sightings in modern times.
Andrei Miljutin of the Natural History Museum at the University of Tartu, who had documented one previous encounter with a rat king in 2005, agreed to take the specimen.
They found 13 rats, two of which were already dead, tied together by their tails as they struggled to free themselves
Johan, a veterinarian, said he found a tunnel dug by the rats in the chicken coop (pictured) where there is ample food
He said of the two rats that had already died in the latest rat king: 'Rats within the rat king are sentenced to death.
'Even if they manage to escape from the narrow burrow, they can't move around normally, can't move to find food, and are completely
