Story By: Lee Bullen, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report

Video Credit: AsiaWire/@gostrider.gostrider.5

This was the scene that greeted a cinema goer when he reached for his fizzy drink in the darkened auditorium only to discover a fat rat licking it.

The horrified customer said he almost ended up picking up the rat but at the last minute thought he saw something moving and switched on the mobile phone light, to reveal the rodent.

The incident took place at the Growball Cinemax in the city of Kota Kinabalu in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah, and the footage was uploaded to Facebook by netizen Hyim A Ny where it has been viewed 300,000 times.

Picture Credits: AsiaWire & AsiaWire/@gostrider.gostrider.5

He added that he then realised other people were similarly affected by the plague of rodents which made it seem like they were in a horror movie rather than simply watching a movie.

He said: “You could hear other people in the cinema shrieking. I guess I wasn’t the only one in there to experience this. Please take care of the cleanliness here.”

He wrote on social media: “What a rat! It didn’t even run away even when it was threatened!”

Ny said that he had tried to dislodge it with a flip-flop but it had been unperturbed, and even by changing seats it had followed him in the hope of getting a snack. 

He added that he thought the rats seem to have made the cinema their home, and had clearly grown accustomed to people coming and going.

After Ny’s video was widely shared online, Growball Cinemax released a statement on their Facebook page: “We would like to apologise for the viral incident that occurred.

“We are in the process of a massive cleaning and we will definitely upgrade all the halls in stages.”

The cinema also offered a free showing for anyone who was upset by the rat’s presence.