According to Spanish electricity company Iberdrola, the rat crept into a transformer, in turn causing a short circuit and fire that took firemen an hour to put out.
Meanwhile, 12,000 residents of the northern Madrid suburb of El Pilar were left without electricity for several minutes.
The Madrid rat isn’t the first rodent to cause a blackout, with similar incidents being recorded in Sweden (a hungry beaver) and at Japan’s troublesome Fukushima nuclear plant.
Spanish pest control association ANECPLA has pointed out that the closure of businesses and buildings during the country's economic crisis has led to an increase in rat numbers, especially in the industrial suburbs of the Spanish capital.
READ ON: Brace yourselves! Is this 40cm Swedish rat the biggest you’ve ever seen?
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