A BROADGREEN dad woke up to find a feral rat’s jaws locked around his nose.

The man, who does not want to be identified, also says that on the night previous to the attack, the rodent had dragged his mobile phone from beside his bed, scuttled beneath a chest of drawers and chewed it around the edges.

Pest control experts called by the dad said the unprovoked bite, which left the man’s nose scarred, was highly unusual.

Justin Holloway, managing director of Prokill, told the Adver: “In the 10 years we have been providing pest control services in Swindon this is the first case of an unprovoked bite that I have come across.”

Pest controllers were called in last week after the man – who has a toddler – had struggled to deal with the rat problem himself.

Until a few months ago, the family who have lived in a house off Manchester Road for eight years have never encountered any rodent issues.

“They had tried to control it by buying some bait and scattering it around the house,” said Justin.

“That’s not a good idea if you’ve got small children.”

The rats are believed to have come into the old Victorian terraced house through a gap in the floorboards.

After getting into a cluttered cupboard beneath the stairs, they then spread through the house.

Justin said: “They [the family] became desperate and called the officials out.”

The pest control experts sealed off the gaps in the floorboards.

“Whilst we were doing this work it became clear what had really tipped the balance was this man waking up with a rat on the end of his nose,” said Justin.

The dad is now understood to be getting medical advice about the rat bite.

Unprovoked rat bites are rare – with rats usually lashing out in order to protect themselves.

However, in September the French press reported on a paraplegic teen who was left with 45 wounds to her face and 30 to her feet after being “attacked” by a swarm of rats.

Justin said he had “no idea” why the Swindon rat bit the man.

“It’s possible that the rat was disturbed by him," he said. "It’s entirely possible he scared the rat and the rat felt it needed to defend itself.”

Justin has also hinted at a rise in rat numbers in the town.

“It always seems to be a bit worse each year,” he said.

And he added that anyone with a problem should call in pest controllers rather than try to tackle the problem themselves