A Paris city employee shows a dead rat in the Saint Jacques Tower park in the center of Paris on Friday. The French capital is on a new rampage against rats, trying to shrink the growing rodent population. Photo: IC

Ganzhou in East China's Jiangxi Province has put a 5 yuan (70 cent) bounty on rats in a campaign to ride a district in the city of the rodents. 

According to a report posted by chinanews.com on its WeChat account on Saturday, the aim of the campaign is to further improve sanitation in the Zhanggong district of the city. City officials say the campaign will effectively protect the health of the citizens and reduce the spread of diseases caused by rats.

Bounty hunters are being asked to bring their catch to the nearby village or community neighborhood committee to claim their reward, said the report.

The city government recommends citizens to use rat traps, and the dead rats must be intact, cannot be decomposed and have to be delivered in a sealed bag.

The report attracted attention on Sina Weibo.

Many netizens questioned whether it is safe to ask citizens to capture rats which can transmit more than 50 diseases to humans, some of which can be life-threatening.

Some netizens also made fun of the campaign. "It will cause a lot of unemployment among cats," wrote a netizen.

Chinanews.com