Photo: Screenshot of Weibo video

Tmall Supermarket, an e-commerce platform and subsidiary of Taobao, has apologized on Thursday and recalled the product after two live rats were found in a box of bottled drinking water sold to a woman in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province. 

The woman, surnamed Liu, said that she bought the goods from Tmall and "saw a clump of blackish stuff after opening the box, grabbed and found it was two live rats," Feidian Video reported on Wednesday.

The online supermarket replied to Liu's complaint, offering her a 20-yuan ($3.1) coupon and a refund. However, Liu refused the offer and asked for further explanation. 

Later, Tmall Supermarket said in a statement that the company set up a special working group to deal with the matter. The group arrived at Liu's home and apologized, and the product will be taken back for investigation. 

Meanwhile, the statement said that the group is working with third-party professional national institutions to look into the storage and delivery chain to better locate the cause of the incident. 

All goods from the involved storage rooms have been taken off the shelves and a comprehensive rectification of the warehouse distribution system will be carried out.