Video shows large rat travelling on Rome metro.

Video footage showing a large rat ambling around a carriage on Rome's Metro B line was shared by politician Stefano Pedica of the centre-left Partito Democratico on 6 February, reports Italian news agency ANSA.

Taking aim at the administration of populist Movimento 5 Stelle mayor Virginia Raggi, Pedica claimed that the city was now "the realm of rats" and that the "patience of Romans has totally run out."

To further illustrate his point, Pedica described the capital as being in "full decline" and an "open-air zoo."

The video of the Metro B rat comes after the recent closure of a well-known Rome cinema and reports of rats infiltrating city hall offices.

The city's environment councillor Pinuccia Montanari is on record as saying that she has never seen a rat in Rome.

Photo Corriere della Sera