Get your paws off my buns! Rats get among the bread

Rats get among the bread in a Madrid bakery. Photo / YouTube

Customers at a Madrid bakery witnessed a rather unexpected - and stomach churning - sight: four rats tucking into sandwiches in the bakery's display case.

The rodents were spotted by two men passing by a branch of the Granier bakery chain and were caught on camera helping themselves to food that was left in a glass-fronted display case.

The men can be heard joking "how cute" as they film the two large rats scampering over the fresh food in a video published on social media.

Police confirmed they were called to the bakery on Saturday NZT and had closed the establishment pending health and safety checks.

Granier, a Spanish chain, has 350 bakeries across Spain as well as in Portugal, Italy and London.

The company confirmed that the bakery, located in the Pueblo Nuevo neighbourhood of Madrid, "was closed and would stay closed".

"The company has put itself at the disposal of the appropriate authorities and has opened an internal investigation into these events," the company said, adding that food safety protocol had been "strictly adhered to" in the establishment.

Granier said that the bakery underwent quarterly inspections, the last having taken place on October 26, when, according to documents released by the company, the branch in question was fumigated.

It was, the company claimed, "an isolated event" and "the 350 Granier establishments in Spain and abroad comply strictly with all food health regulations".

The video has been watched tens of thousands of times since it was uploaded to social media on Saturday, with some comments comparing the rats to the gourmet food-loving rodents in the Disney film, Ratatouille.