ENVIRONMENTAL health officers have placed an emergency closure order on a shop after an anonymous tip-off

led to the discovery of rat droppings and gnawed food throughout the premises.

Parkhead News and Off Licence in Parkhead Square, Winlaton, Gateshead, was served with a Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Notice by officials from Gateshead Council.

Overall cleanliness was also found to be "well below the required standards" and officers took immediate action to close the shop by serving the emergency notice on the operator Farah Asim.

Ms Asim failed to attend Gateshead Magistrates’ Court this week where magistrates prohibited the use of her premises as a food business until improvements have been made, saying that the shop currently presented an imminent risk of injury.

Anneliese Hutchinson, service director for development, highways and public protection, said: “This could have been extremely harmful to the public’s health. The owners had not taken adequate measures to prevent rats from entering the premises or to ensure food safety.

“Gateshead Council takes these matters very seriously and officers were left with no alternative but to require the premises to close in order to protect the public.

“Food businesses must take responsibility for ensuring that their premises do not pose a risk to the public, and where they fail in this duty we will use the full extent of the law to protect the residents of Gateshead and our visitors.”