Ratmageddon: Why rats are overrunning our cities

Justin RowlattClimate EditorBBCOne morning last year, John Gladwin opened the cupboard under his kitchen sink and discovered a bag of soil he'd been storing there was torn to shreds.Days later he noticed a pungent smell too. It was musty and slightly astringent, not unlike the communal bin area in his block of flats."I knew what it was straight away," he says. "Rats."He'd often seen them scurrying around near…