A COUNCIL flat may have to be demolished - because up to 60 hamsters have set up home inside its walls.

The thriving family started when the man who lives there gave his hamsters the run of the flat. Four of them scuttled behind the skirting boards and were never found by the tenant of the property, in Brunswick, Newcastle.

In the months that have passed, the two pairs bred and bred again - and now the cavity walls are crawling with their offspring.

RSPCA officers have already removed 30 hamsters and believe there are a further 30 in the walls.

They are now running wild and are even breeding in the block's central heating system.

There are worries about removing some of the females because they may still be suckling their young.

But RSPCA inspector Ian Smith said: "If we can't get them out, they will just breed and breed and it may be a case of taking the walls down.

"The hamsters have been breeding like nothing on earth. They are even in kitchen units and bedroom cupboards

"Hamsters can get into places like ventilation ducts and heating vents.

"If action had not been taken, I hate to think of what would have happened. There could have been a plague of hamsters. This has been a rather strange case."

He said a decision had been taken not to prosecute the tenant, who is co-operating with them after receiving a verbal warning.

The RSPCA was called out by Your Homes Newcastle, which looks after the city's housing stock.

A spokesman said: "There is a concern that there may be a number of hamsters still living in the property in the cavity walls and the central heating system shared by four flats in the block."