Passengersflee as rats are spotted atLisburn station

One shocked Lisburn couple, who were at the station on Sunday morning to catch the Enterprise train to Dublin, said they were terrified to see the rates, which they said were the size of a small dog.

“I was terrified and practically ran out of the station,” explained the woman, who was still shaken by the ordeal.

“I reported it to staff at the station who said they had set traps but as far as I could tell these don’t seem to be working.

“There were about 15 other people there who saw them as well. They were running over the hedge outside and around the car park. They were the size of dogs and they weren’t scared of us. I can’t sleep now or anything and I won’t go back to the station until I know this has been completely cleared,” she added.

A spokesperson for Translink apologised for the distress caused and said steps had been taken to deal with the problem.

“Translink can confirm that we became aware of a rodent issue at Lisburn train station last Sunday (March 6),” she said.

“We immediately contacted our pest control contractor to come to the station and bait has been laid at sites around the premises. There have been no sightings of the rodents since Sunday. We wish to apologise to our passengers for any distress caused by this incident,” she concluded.