CONCERNS have been raised over the suspected mutilation of a rat.

The rat was found near a primary school and residential care home yesterday.

The rat's head and feet were said to have been removed and its body placed on top of a fence on Cysgodfa Road, Denbigh.

Dolwen Residential Care Home is situated on the road and parents and children use it as a walking route, to head to and from Ysgol y Parc, a nearby primary school.

Children were said to be surrounding the body after school yesterday, forcing a parent to move it to an adjacent hedge.

Wendy Brockbank, a Denbigh resident who witnessed the dead rat on the fence, said: "I think it's sick and disgusting; it had no feet or head and it was placed on top of a fence for all the kids to see.

"Not to mention the pain the rat would have suffered.

"All the kids from the other school use the road and there was a load of them crowding round it after school yesterday.

"I think a parent has now pushed it off the top of the fence to a hedge."

A spokesperson for the RSPCA said: "This is very shocking to hear and must have been very upsetting for the schoolchildren who found this rat attached to a fence, who did not have a head or tail.

"If anyone has any information about this please can they contact us on 0300 1234 999."